ῥαψῳδός

Forms

ῥᾰψῳδός (rhapsōidós) m (genitive ῥᾰψῳδοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek ῥάπτω (rháptō, “to sew, stitch”) + ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”), a verbal governing compound made from the phrase “to stitch a song” (ἀοιδή (aoidḗ)), so originally “one who sews a song together”.^[2][3][1] The phrase itself is old: a fragment of Hesiod says that he and Homer “stitched song” in new hymns, and Pindar calls the Homeridae singers “of stitched verses”.^[2][3][4]

Beekes, following Patzer, takes the stitching to mean the continuous run of epic verses, as opposed to the strophes of lyric poetry;^[2][3] Chantraine finds that analysis open to question in its details and prefers the general sense “one who composes poems”.^[2][3] LSJ rejects the ancient derivation from ῥάβδος (rhábdos, “staff”), as if the word were ῥαβδῳδός (rhabdōidós), the “staff-singer”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 5th century BC: Herodotus uses it of professional reciters of Homer, and Sophocles in the Oedipus Tyrannus calls the Sphinx, who chanted her riddle in verse, a “rhapsode hound”.^[4][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Attic the word names the professional reciters of epic poetry, above all of Homer, in Plato's Ion and in Xenophon.^[4][6] It could also be applied to a poet who recited his own work, as to Hesiod, and Plato uses it of the Homeric bard Phemios.^[4][6] From it come ῥαψῳδέω (rhapsōidéō, “to recite epic poetry”), ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidíā) and ῥαψῳδικός (rhapsōidikós), all in Plato.^[3]

Ancient writers already explained the name: Eustathius notes that Pindar derived it from “stitching” rather than from the rhapsode's staff.^[5] Modern Greek ραψωδός (rapsodós) survives as a learned word for the ancient reciter.^[8][5]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – A fragment of Hesiod uses the phrase “stitching song”, from which the compound was made.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the word of reciters of Homer;^[4][6][9] Sophocles applies it to the Sphinx.^[4][6][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato, in the Ion, and Xenophon use it of professional reciters of epic.^[4][6][9]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek ραψωδός (rapsodós) survives as a learned word for the reciter of ancient epic.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A reciter of epic poetry, especially a professional performer of Homer, a rhapsode.^[4][6]
2. A composer and singer of epic poetry, a bard, as of Hesiod or the Homeric Phemios.^[4][6]
3. (feminine, figurative) A chanting songstress, of the Sphinx and her riddles in verse.^[6][4]

Word family

• ῥαψῳδέω (rhapsōidéō)
• ῥαψῳδία (rhapsōidíā)
• ῥαψῳδικός (rhapsōidikós)

Related words

• ῥάπτω (rháptō)
• ᾠδή (ōidḗ)
• ἀείδω (aeídō)
• English rhapsode

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge