echo

Pronunciation

• Classical: [ˈeː.kʰoː]^[1]
• Ecclesiastical: [ˈɛː.ko]^[1]

Forms

ēchō f (genitive ēchūs); fourth declension^[1] The accusative is ⟨ēchō⟩ or ⟨ēchōn⟩.^[2][3] Medieval spellings include ⟨eccho⟩, ⟨ecco⟩ and ⟨haecco⟩.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhṓ, “echo”).^[2][7][6][1] The Greek noun is from or related to ἠχή (ēkhḗ, “sound”).^[8][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)wagh- (“to resound”), which it also finds in vāgiō (“to cry”);^[8] Köbler gives that connection only with a question mark.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler and Georges give Accius as the first author, in a fragment of his tragedies, followed by a fragment of Laevius quoted by Festus.^[6][9] The TLL dates it from the Culex: sonitus alit āeris ēchō, “the echo of the air feeds the sound”.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 1st century AD it was the ordinary word for an echo:^[2][10] Pliny the Elder asks why an echo is returned, tells of one that resounds seven times, and says that bees hate echoes,^[10][2][11] and Calpurnius, Persius and Statius use it in verse.^[2][11] The native Latin word was imāgō.^[11][9] Seneca the Elder reports that Cestius called it ēchō when the same phrase was put at the beginning and the end of a speech,^[2][10] and Martial uses it of verses that repeat their words.^[2][10] the longer commentary of Servius gives imāgō as the Latin for the Greek word,^[10] the Vulgate has an echo resounding from the highest mountains (Wisdom 17:18),^[11][10] and an Old Latin version of Acts uses it simply for a sound.^[10]

Medieval writers kept it:^[4][5] Walahfrid says that the old poets called up the echo with their voices,^[4] and Neckam defines it as the rebounding of air shaped by the striking of a voice.^[5] English echo came from it in the mid-14th century.^[8]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it in a tragedy.^[9][6]
• 1st century AD – The Culex speaks of the echo of the air.^[10][2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder discusses why echoes return.^[10][2][6]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses it of repeated words in verse.^[2][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate has it in Wisdom 17:18.^[11][6]
• 2nd quarter of the 9th century – Walahfrid uses it.^[4][6]
• mid-14th century – English echo is recorded.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An echo, a sound thrown back.^{[2][11][9][12]}
2. (rhetoric) A deliberate repetition of words or syllables; the use of the same phrase at the beginning and end of a speech.^[2][9][3]
3. (Late Latin) A sound.^[10]

Word family

• echoicus

Related words

• imāgō
• English echo

Usage notes

Personified, Ēchō is the nymph: Ovid calls her vōcālis nymphē … resonābilis Ēchō, “the vocal nymph, resounding Echo” (Metamorphoses 3.358),^[2][9] and Apuleius shows Pan holding Echo, the mountain goddess, in his arms.^[2][9] Gaffiot and Conte give the nymph, who loved Narcissus, an entry of her own.^[12][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.