Etymologically
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ironia

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [iː.roːˈniː.a][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [i.roˈniː.a][1]

Forms

īrōnīa f (genitive īrōnīae); first declension[1] Also spelled īrōnēa.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek εἰρωνεία (eirōneía, “dissimulation, feigned ignorance”),[2][1][3] from εἴρων (eírōn, “dissembler”).[3][4] The further origin of the Greek word is unclear;[3] Etymonline mentions a possible connection with εἴρω (eírō, “to speak”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero, who uses it for saying the opposite of what one means: in a letter to his brother he insists he is speaking without any irony.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also used it for the feigned ignorance of Socrates, in which he says Socrates surpassed everyone, and rendered it in Latin as dissimulatio.[2][5] In the rhetoricians, from the elder Seneca and Quintilian on, it is a figure or trope of speech.[2][6]

The commentator Donatus uses the phrases cum ironia and sine ironia.[6] Medieval writers kept it as a term of rhetoric;[7] Bede defines it as a trope that shows its meaning by the opposite.[7] English took irony from it about 1500.[4]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for irony and for Socratic irony.[2][3]
  • c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian discusses it as a figure of speech.[2][3]
  • c. 1500 – English borrows it as irony.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Irony, saying the opposite of what one means.[2][5]
  2. Simulated ignorance, Socratic irony.[2]
  3. (rhetoric) Irony as a figure or trope of speech.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  7. ^ 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