Etymologically
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pyrricha

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈpyr.rɪ.kʰa][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈpir.ri.ka][1]

Forms

pyrricha f (genitive pyrrichae); first declension[1] Also spelled pyrrhica and pyrrhicha, and with the Greek ending pyrrichē (genitive pyrrichēs).[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek πυρρίχη (purrhíkhē, “war dance”).[2][1][4]

Ancient grammarians explained the name in several ways: Sacerdos says it came from a Pyrrichus of Cydonia, who first taught the Cretans to dance in arms, while others named Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, who first danced armed at his father's tomb;[5] Aristotle, he adds, made Achilles the inventor.[5] A scholiast on Juvenal connected it with the king of Epirus.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Pliny the Elder (23/24–79 AD) on, and in inscriptions at Pompeii;[5][6] Pliny names it among the inventions of men.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Pliny also tells of an elephant taking part in a playful pyrrhic,[3] and Suetonius has it danced by boys and girls.[7] Sidonius uses it as an adjective, ars pyrricha, the art of the war dance.[3][7] Servius, after Suetonius, says that the game commonly called pyrricha is the one called Troia.[5] From it came pyrrichāriī, the war dancers, in the Digest.[7]

English borrowed it, through Latin, as pyrrhic in the 1590s.[8]

Timeline

  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder names the war dance.[2][5][6]
  • c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius has it danced by boys and girls.[7][6]
  • c. 431–486 AD – Sidonius uses it as an adjective.[7][6]
  • 1590s – English borrows it as pyrrhic, a dance in armour.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A war dance in armour, the pyrrhic.[2][3][1]

Adjective

  1. Of the war dance (ars pyrricha).[3][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  5. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com