ῥεῦμα

Forms

ῥεῦμᾰ (rheûma) n (genitive ῥεύμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *hréumə,^[1] from *sréwmn̥, a noun in *-mn̥ from the root Proto-Indo-European *srew- (“to flow”).^[1][2][3] Within Greek it is the action noun of ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”).^[4][2]

Cognate with Old Irish srúaim (“stream”).^[2][3] Masculine nouns with the same suffix are Lithuanian sraumuõ (“rapid”), Old Norse straumr and Old English strēam (“stream”), and Albanian rrymë (“stream”) is related.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aeschylus, who in the Persians calls the Persian army a great “stream” of men.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense was a current or stream: of a river in Herodotus and Euripides, of a flood in Herodotus and Thucydides, and of lava from Etna in Thucydides.^[5][4] Poets used it of a flood of soldiers, of words and of laments, and Menander of the ebb and flow of fortune.^[5][4] Plato used it of the flowing of growth, of sight and of beauty.^[5][4]

In Hippocratic medicine it was a flux or discharge of humours, the rheum, and in Plutarch's plural the pains of rheumatism.^[5][4] From this use came ῥευματικός (rheumatikós) and ῥευματισμός (rheumatismós).^[2] It was borrowed into Latin as rheuma, and English rheum came in the late 14th century through Old French and directly from Latin.^[1][7] Coptic borrowed it too, attested from about AD 500.^[8]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for the current of a river or of the sea and had the form ρέμα (réma), still used for a stream.^[9][1] Modern Greek ρεύμα (révma) is a learned form: its senses of electric current and of a trend are modelled on French courant.^[10]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus calls the Persian army a stream of men.^[5][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of the stream of a river and of a flood.^[5][4][11]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of lava flowing from Etna.^[5][4][11]
• 5th century BC – Hippocratic writings use it of a flux of humours.^[5][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander speaks of the ebb and flow of fortune.^[5][4][11]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses the plural for rheumatic pains.^[4][11]
• Late 14th century – English borrows it as rheum.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned word means a current, including an electric current.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. That which flows; a flow, stream.^[5][4]
2. The current of a river; a river.^[5][4]
3. A flood after rain; a flow of lava.^[5][4]
4. (figurative) A stream of men, words or laments; the tide of fortune.^[5][4]
5. (medicine) A flux or discharge of humours, rheum; in the plural, rheumatic pains.^[5][4]

Word family

• ῥευματικός (rheumatikós)
• ῥευματισμός (rheumatismós)

Related words

• ῥέω (rhéō)
• ῥόος (rhóos)
• Latin rheuma
• English rheum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge