Etymologically
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ὕβρις

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /hý.bris/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈy.βris/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈy.vris/[1]

Forms

ῠ̔́βρῐς (húbris) f (genitive ῠ̔́βρεως or ῠ̔́βρῐος); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3] Beekes thinks the β and the initial ὑ- hardly look Indo-European, so the word could well be Pre-Greek.[2][1] A widely accepted older explanation combines the prefix ὑ- (hu-, “up, out”) with the root of βαρύς (barús, “heavy”) and βριαρός (briarós, “strong”), as if “to throw one's whole weight against something”.[3][4] Frisk thought it morphologically unsatisfying, and Beekes says the prefix explains nothing.[3][2][4] Nikolaev linked it with ἥβη (hḗbē, “youthful vigour”) and reconstructed Proto-Indo-European *(H)i̯oHgʷ-ri-, but Beekes rejects this, since it would have given a form in ὠ-.[2][1] A Semitic origin from a Hebrew word for “overflowing” was rejected long ago.[5]

Byzantine etymologists derived it from ὑφαιρέω (huphairéō, “to filch away”) or from “under a weight”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the first book of the Iliad it is an act of arrogance, an insult.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the Odyssey it is above all the wanton violence of the suitors, whose hubris “reaches the iron sky”, and the gods watch over hubris and good order among men.[9][7] For Hesiod justice prevails over hubris in the end.[9] In lyric and tragedy it is paired with κόρος (kóros, “excess”), whose mother it is in Pindar and in an oracle in Herodotus.[8] Aeschylus calls it the child of impiety.[8][9] Plato defines it as desire that rules us unreasonably.[9]

In Athenian law it was a crime of deliberate humiliation, especially physical assault and sexual violation, which could be punished with death.[8] It was also used of the unruliness of animals and the violence of storms, as in the shipwreck in Acts.[8][10] In the Septuagint and the New Testament it means insolence and pride, and also the insults and mistreatment one suffers.[11][10]

Modern Greek ύβρις (ývris) is a learned word for an insult, and for the ancient notion of overstepping the human measure.[12][6] English hubris dates from 1884.[4]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for an insult, and the Odyssey for the suitors' violence.[7][9]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod sets justice against hubris.[9]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar makes Hybris the mother of Koros.[8]
  • 4th century BC – The Attic orators use it for assault and rape as a legal offence.[8]
  • 1st century AD – Acts uses it for the damage done by a storm.[10]
  • 1884 – English borrows it as hubris.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. arrogance, insolence, wanton violence.[9][8]
  2. An insolent act; an insult or outrage.[8][7]
  3. Unruliness of animals.[8]
  4. (law) Physical assault; sexual violation.[8]
  5. Sacrilege, an offence against the state and its religion.[8]
  6. Damage done by force, as by a storm.[10][8]
  7. (Septuagint, New Testament) Insult or mistreatment suffered.[11][10]
  8. (personified) Hybris, mother of Koros.[8]

Word family

  • ὑβρίζω (hubrízō)
  • ὕβρισμα (húbrisma)
  • ὑβριστής (hubristḗs)
  • ὑβριστικός (hubristikós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
  6. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b c d e 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
  11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  12. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki