ethos

Forms

ēthos n (genitive ētheos); irregular, third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ἦθος (êthos, “custom, character”).^[2][1][3] The Greek word means “custom, usage”, in the plural “haunts”;^[4] it differs from ἔθος (éthos, “custom”) only by its long vowel.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Varro's Menippean Satires,^[2][3] in the plural: in argumentis Caecilius poscit palmam, in ethesin Terentius “in plots Caecilius claims the prize, in characters Terence”.^[2] Varro lived 116–27 BC.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Latin kept it as a Greek term of literary criticism and rhetoric, for the portrayal of character, often paired with pathos.^[2][3] Pliny the Elder uses the plural ēthē for the depiction of character.^[6] Servius says that Virgil gave the fourth book of the Aeneid to ethos,^[3] and Sidonius Apollinaris uses it for ethics or morals beside physics and logic.^[6][3] English took ethos directly from Greek in the 19th century.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses the plural of characters in comedy.^[2][5]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the depiction of character.^[6][5]
• c. 400 AD – Servius assigns ethos to the fourth book of the Aeneid.^[3][5]
• c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius Apollinaris uses it of ethics.^[6][3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Character as shown in drama or rhetoric; the portrayal of character.^[2][6][3]
2. Manners, morals; ethics.^[6][1]

Related words

• ēthicus
• English ethos

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com