ῥυθμός

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /r̥ytʰ.mós/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ryθˈmos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ryθˈmos/^[1]

Forms

ῥῠθμός (rhuthmós) m (genitive ῥῠθμοῦ); second declension^[1] Ionic ῥυσμός (rhusmós).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *hrutʰmós,^[1] corresponding to Proto-Indo-European *sru-dʰ-mo-s, from *srew- (“to flow”), the root of ῥέω (rhéō) “to flow”.^[1][2]

Beekes and Frisk accept this old connection with flowing, “streaming” being the typical image of a quiet and steady movement.^[2][4] The short υ (for instance in Aeschylus) rules out links with ῥύομαι (rhúomai) “to protect” or ἐρύω (erúō) “to draw”.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Archilochus, for the pattern or tenor that governs human affairs, and in Anacreon and Theognis for a person's disposition.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In early prose it is shape or arrangement: Herodotus uses it of the shapes of written letters, Pindar of the pattern of a temple, and Aristotle of the form of matter.^[5] From the 5th century BC it is the rhythm of music, verse and dance: Plato defines it as “the order of movement”, and in the Symposium as arising from fast and slow brought into agreement; ἐν ῥυθμῷ meant “in time, in step” (Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon).^[3][5][2] Aristophanes and Plato contrast it with metre and harmony, and Aristotle discusses the rhythm of prose.^[3] The Suda calls rhythm the father of metre, metre being one kind of rhythm.^[6]

In the Septuagint it can mean form or proportion, as in the Song of Songs' shapely lines of the thighs.^[7] It was borrowed as Latin rhythmus, and through Old French rime it is the source of English rhyme and English rhythm, both 16th-century respellings of Middle English rime.^[8][1]

Modern Greek ρυθμός (rythmós) is learned: its sense of pace or tempo (of work, of life) is modelled on French rythme, and its sense of style in architecture and art revives the ancient meaning “form, shape”.^[9]

Timeline

• 7th century BC – Archilochus uses it for the tenor of human affairs.^[5][10]
• 6th century BC – Anacreon and Theognis use it for a person's disposition.^[5][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of the shapes of letters, and Aeschylus of a galloping horse.^[5][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato defines it as the order of movement.^[3][2][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle discusses the rhythm of prose.^[3][10]
• 16th century – English rhyme and rhythm are respelled after the Greek word.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Orderly form or configuration, shape, pattern.^[5][1]
2. Characteristic style or mode, as of clothing.^[5]
3. A person's characteristic manner, disposition.^[5]
4. The manner of an action; the tenor of human affairs.^[5]
5. Orderly movement, motion.^[5][3]
6. Rhythm of verse, prose, music or dance.^[5][3]
7. In phrases such as ἐν ῥυθμῷ and μετὰ ῥυθμοῦ: in time, in step.^[5][3]
8. Measure, proportion, symmetry.^[1][7]

Word family

• ἄρρυθμος (árrhuthmos)
• εὔρυθμος (eúruthmos)
• ῥυθμικός (rhuthmikós)
• ῥυθμίζω (rhuthmízō)

Related words

• ῥέω (rhéō)
• Latin rhythmus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ 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