Etymologically
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ἰδίωμα

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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)

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