ῥητορικός

Forms

ῥητορῐκός (rhētorikós) m (feminine ῥητορῐκή, neuter ῥητορῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ῥήτωρ (rhḗtōr) + -ικός (-ikós) “public speaker”.^[1][2] According to Beekes, ῥήτωρ (rhḗtōr) was created as the name of a profession in the official language of Athens, but it was originally an agent noun of εἴρω (eírō) “to speak”: Euripides' “speakers of words” echoes a Homeric phrase with the older ῥητήρ (rhētḗr).^[3] That verb goes back to the root Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to speak”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Isocrates and Plato (5th–4th century BC): Isocrates uses it of people skilled in speaking, and Plato's Phaedrus has ἡ ῥητορική (understood τέχνη) for the art of rhetoric.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Plato also uses the neuter τὸ ῥητορικόν for rhetoric, and the adverb ῥητορικῶς “in an orator's manner”.^[2][5] Aeschines speaks of the “orator's cowardice” of Demosthenes, and Isaeus of an indictment brought against a public speaker.^[2][5] Aristotle and Plutarch use the feminine noun for the art itself.^[5] Later, Libanius uses the word for a student of rhetoric, and a papyrus of the 1st century AD for a slave belonging to a rhetor.^[2]

Latin borrowed the adjective as Latin rhetoricus.^[7] English rhetoric (early 14th century) comes through Old French and Latin from ῥητορικὴ τέχνη “the orator's art”.^[4] Medieval Greek kept the word, with expressions such as ρητορικά σχήματα “figures of speech”,^[8] and Modern Greek ρητορικός (ritorikós) continues it as a learned word.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Isocrates uses it of people skilled in speaking.^[2][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses ἡ ῥητορική for the art of rhetoric.^[2][10]
• 4th century BC – Aeschines speaks of the “orator's cowardice” of Demosthenes.^[2][5][10]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus writes his treatise on rhetoric with the term.^[2][10]
• 1st century AD – A papyrus uses it for a slave belonging to a rhetor.^[2]
• 4th century AD – Libanius uses it for a student of rhetoric.^[2][10]
• Early 14th century – English borrows rhetoric through Old French and Latin.^[4]
• Modern Greek – ρητορικός (ritorikós) continues the word as a learned term.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of an orator: oratorical, rhetorical.^[2][5] As a noun, ἡ ῥητορική is the art of rhetoric.^[2][5]
2. Of a person: skilled in speaking, fit to be an orator.^[2][5]
3. Of a politician, said of Demosthenes by Aeschines.^[5]
4. (late) A student of rhetoric.^[2]
5. Belonging to a rhetor.^[2]

Related words

• ῥήτωρ (rhḗtōr)
• εἴρω (eírō)
• Latin rhetoricus
• English rhetoric

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge