ᾠδή

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ɔːi̯.dɛ̌ː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /oˈði/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /oˈði/^[1]

Forms

ᾠδή (ōidḗ) f (genitive ᾠδῆς); first declension^[1] Contracted from ἀοιδή (aoidḗ), the form used by Homer and Aeschylus.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is the Attic contraction of ἀοιδή (aoidḗ, “song”), from ἀείδω (aeídō, “to sing”).^[2][3][1] Beekes notes that the ablaut of ἀείδω points to an Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *h₂weyd- (“to sing”), but no cognate outside Greek is known.^[4] αὐδή (audḗ, “voice”) and ἀηδών (aēdṓn, “nightingale”) are compared.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The contracted form first appears in the Homeric Hymns to Apollo and to Demeter, for a song.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy it is used of dirges (Sophocles, Euripides) and of joyful songs, such as a victory song or songs of praise.^[2][3] Plato uses it often: songs sung to the cithara, lyric poetry beside other poetry, the sung part of a work as opposed to its diction.^[2] Stesichorus' poems on Helen and the songs of particular trades were called ᾠδαί.^[2]

Later it meant singing, also of birds (Aristotle), a magic song or spell (Longus), and, by metonymy, a string of the lyre (Timotheus).^[2][3] In the New Testament it is a sacred song, as in “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”, and the “new song” of Revelation.^[6] In the Byzantine liturgy an ode is a group of hymns in the same metre, a sense that Modern Greek ωδή (odí) keeps beside “ode, lyric poem”.^[3][7]

English ode (1580s) comes from it through French and Late Latin.^[5] Many Greek compounds end in it, among them τραγῳδία (tragōidía), κωμῳδία (kōmōidía), μελῳδία (melōidía) and ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidía).^[1]

Timeline

• Homeric Hymns – ᾠδή “song”.^[2]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it of dirges and of victory songs.^[2][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for lyric poetry and song.^[2][8]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of birdsong.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – the New Testament uses it of sacred songs.^[6]
• 1580s – English ode.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A song, lay, ode; a dirge or a song of praise.^[2][3]
2. Lyric poetry; the sung part as opposed to the spoken.^[2]
3. Singing; the song of birds.^[2]
4. A magic song, a spell.^[2][3]
5. (by metonymy) A string of the lyre.^[2]
6. (New Testament) A sacred song, a song of praise to God.^[6]

Word family

• ἐπῳδή (epōidḗ)
• ἐπῳδός (epōidós)
• κιθαρῳδία (kitharōidía)
• κωμῳδία (kōmōidíā)
• μελῳδία (melōidíā)
• μονῳδία (monōidía)
• παλινῳδία (palinōidía)
• παρῳδία (parōidíā)
• προσῳδία (prosōidíā)
• ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidíā)
• συνῳδία (sunōidía)
• ᾠδικός (ōidikós)
• ᾠδεῖον (ōideîon)

Related words

• ἀείδω (aeídō)
• ἀοιδός (aoidós)
• English ode

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 l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c 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. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge