ῥαψῳδός
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /r̥ap.sɔːi̯.dós/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /rap.soˈðos/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /rap.soˈðos/[1]
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
- A reciter of epic poetry, especially a professional performer of Homer, a rhapsode.[4][6]
- A composer and singer of epic poetry, a bard, as of Hesiod or the Homeric Phemios.[4][6]
- (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
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge