ὀνοματοποιία

Forms

ὀνομᾰτοποιῐ́ᾱ (onomatopoiíā) f (genitive ὀνομᾰτοποιῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιός (onomatopoiós, “coiner of names”) with the abstract suffix -ία (-ía).^[1] Babiniotis instead takes it as a back-formation from the verb ὀνοματοποιέω (onomatopoiéō, “to coin names”).^[2] Both go back to a compound of ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”) and ποιέω (poiéō, “to make”).^[2][3]

The word passed into Latin as onomatopoeia, the source of the English, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese words.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest texts with the word are the treatise On Tropes of the grammarian Tryphon (1st century BC) and Strabo's Geography (14.2.28), where it means the coining of a word in imitation of a sound.^[4][5] In that passage Strabo remarks that people are very apt at naming sounds by similar sounds.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Strictly the word meant the making of names in general; already in the Hellenistic period it was tied to the creation of words that imitate sounds.^[6][2] Plutarch uses it in the plural, and the Roman rhetorician Quintilian discusses it under its Greek name.^[5][7]

It survives in Modern Greek as the learned word Modern Greek ονοματοποιία (onomatopoiía), taken from the Hellenistic term.^[8] Through Latin onomatopoeia it reached English as onomatopoeia in the 1570s.^[3]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – The grammarian Tryphon uses it in his treatise on tropes.^[4]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses it of a word made in imitation of a sound.^[5][9]
• 1st century AD – Quintilian discusses the figure under its Greek name.^[5][6]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses the plural in his Table Talk.^[5][7][4]
• 1570s – English takes onomatopoeia from Late Latin.^[3]
• Modern Greek – The learned word ονοματοποιία (onomatopoiía) continues the Hellenistic term.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The coining of words or names.^[6][7]
2. (grammar, rhetoric) The forming of a word in imitation of a sound; onomatopoeia.^[5][1]

Related words

• ὀνοματοποιός (onomatopoiós)
• ὀνοματοποιέω (onomatopoiéō)
• ὄνομα (ónoma)
• ποιέω (poiéō)
• Latin onomatopoeia
• English onomatopoeia

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
7. ^ a b c Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge