pyrrhichius

Forms

pyrrhichius (feminine pyrrhichia, neuter pyrrhichium); first/second-declension adjective; also a masculine noun, pyrrhichius (genitive pyrrhichiī).^[1][2] Old manuscripts also spell it pyrrich-.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πυρρίχιος (purrhíkhios),^[3][1] the adjective of πυρρίχη (purrhíkhē, “war dance”).^[4] Köbler compares further πυρρός (purrhós, “flame-coloured”) and πῦρ (pûr, “fire”).^[4]

Ancient grammarians explained the name of the foot: Sacerdos says it came from the dance, because soldiers used its beat in mock fights; some, he says, derived it from ardour, that is, from the speed of its sound;^[2] Diomedes connects it with Pyrrhus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian (c. 35–95/96 AD) is the first to use it: among the four feet of two syllables, he names the one of two short syllables, which others call pariambus.^[2][1][4]

Semantic evolution

It remained a term of metrics, used mostly as a noun with pes “foot” understood.^[2] Quintilian also says that the comic trochaic senarius runs on many chorees and pyrrhics,^[2] and the grammarians and Martianus Capella use it.^[1][2] Terentianus Maurus writes it in Greek letters.^[2]

English took the metrical sense of pyrrhic in the 1620s.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian names the foot of two short syllables.^[2][4]
• 3rd century AD – Sacerdos explains its name from the war dance.^[2][4]
• 5th century AD – Martianus Capella uses it.^[1][4]
• 1620s – English uses pyrrhic for the metrical foot.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the war dance; in prosody, of the foot of two short syllables (pes pyrrhichius).^[1][2]

Noun

1. A pyrrhic, the metrical foot of two short syllables.^[1][2][4]

Related words

• pyrricha
• English pyrrhic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com