ὅραμα

Forms

ὅρᾱμᾰ (hórāma) n (genitive ὁρᾱ́μᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ὁράω (horáō, “to see”) + -μα (-ma), a noun of result.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Xenophon, at the turn of the 5th and 4th centuries BC,^[4][3] meaning a sight or spectacle: in the Cyropaedia of a striking sight, and in On Horsemanship of the sights and sounds that alarm a spirited horse.^[5][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle uses it of whatever is seen, a visible object, and in the Politics (a doubtful reading) of a device or discovery, Thales' scheme with the olive presses.^[5][2] In Hellenistic Greek it came to mean a vision seen in sleep or in ecstasy: so in Egyptian papyri of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, in a Delian inscription and in the Septuagint, where God speaks to Abraham “in a vision”.^[5][6][3] The New Testament uses it of the Transfiguration, of God's appearance in the burning bush and of the visions in Acts, such as the one that called Paul to Macedonia, and in the phrase “in a vision”.^[6][2]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept it for a vision, sometimes a prophetic one.^[7] Modern Greek όραμα (órama) is a learned form of the ancient word; besides the rare sense “thing seen” and the Hellenistic “vision”, it has taken from French vision the sense of an ideal or goal one aims at.^[8][3] From it the Hellenistic verb ὁραματίζομαι (horamatízomai) and its noun ὁραματισμός (horamatismós) continue in Modern Greek.^[3]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of sights and spectacles.^[5][2][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of a visible object, and Demosthenes' Prooemia of a scheme or device.^[5][2]
• 3rd century BC – An Egyptian papyrus uses it of a vision in sleep.^[5][6]
• 160 BC – A papyrus records “this vision that I have seen”.^[6][5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of the Transfiguration and of the visions in Acts.^[6]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it for a vision, also a prophetic one.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned όραμα (órama) means a vision and, after French, an ideal goal.^[8][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. That which is seen: a sight, a spectacle, a visible object.^[5][2]
2. A device or plan, a discovery.^[5][2]
3. (Koine) A vision seen in sleep or in ecstasy, a dream.^[5][6]
4. (New Testament) The state in which a vision is received, in the phrase “in a vision”.^[6]

Related words

• ὁράω (horáō)
• ὅρασις (hórasis)
• ὁρατός (horatós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki