ἰδίωμα

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /i.dí.ɔː.ma/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /iˈði.o.ma/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /iˈði.o.ma/^[1]

Forms

ῐ̓δῐ́ωμᾰ (idíōma) n (genitive ῐ̓δῐώμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ἰδιόω (idióō, “to make one's own”) with the suffix of result nouns -μα (-ma); the verb is from ἴδιος (ídios, “one's own, peculiar”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Epicurus uses it for a peculiarity or specific property, as of colours.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Stoics and Polybius use it for the distinctive character of a country, a people or a constitution, and later writers for the property of a drug, a law or a number.^[2][3] Dionysius of Halicarnassus applies it to the peculiarities of a writer's style, Apollonius Dyscolus speaks of a “Homeric idiom”, and Athenaeus of the style of a paean.^[2]

Latin borrowed it as idiōma.^[1] Modern Greek ιδίωμα (idíoma) is a local variety of a language, a dialect, in a sense taken from French idiome, and colloquially a peculiar habit.^[4]

Timeline

• 4th–3rd century BC – Epicurus uses it for a specific property.^[2]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the character of a constitution.^[2][3]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses it for a peculiarity of style.^[2]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus speaks of a Homeric idiom.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A peculiarity, specific property, distinctive characteristic.^[2][3]
2. A peculiarity of style; an idiom.^[2][1]
3. A style.^[2]

Word family

• ἰδιωματικός (idiōmatikós)

Related words

• ἴδιος (ídios)
• ἰδιώτης (idiṓtēs)
• Latin idioma
• English idiom

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki