τόπος Ancient Greek · revision 3214

+ {{infobox|confidence=disputed|attested=6th–5th century BC, Aeschylus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /tó.pos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈto.pos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈto.pos/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''τόπος''' (tópos) ''m'' (genitive τόπου); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is an everyday word whose broad meaning makes its etymology hard to establish.^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960)^(Etymonline) Beekes reconstructs ⟨*top-o-⟩ or ⟨*tokʷ-o-⟩.^(Beekes 2010) A link with [[ine-pro|*tekʷ-|t=to run, flow]] is semantically difficult.^(Beekes 2010)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan suggested the root [[ine-pro|*tep-|t=to hit, smear]], seen in [[lt|tepti|alt=tèpti|t=to smear]]: a “stain, spot” would have become a “spot, place”, as in [[en|spot]].^(Beekes 2010)^(Wiktionary) Meier-Brügger derived it from ''*tep-'' “to be hot”, with “hearth” becoming “any place”.^(Beekes 2010)^(Wiktionary) Others have suggested a Pre-Greek origin and compared [[sq|tokë|t=earth, floor]].^(Wiktionary) Chantraine compared the parallel semantic range of [[la|locus]].^(Frisk 1960)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found in Aeschylus, in phrases such as “the land of the Greeks” and “towards the western regions”.^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Classical prose it is a place, a region or district, as in Isocrates and Demosthenes, and the place something occupies.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021) Parmenides and Plato use it for position.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021) Isocrates and Aeschines use it for the subject of a speech, and Aristotle's ''Topics'' for a topic, a commonplace from which arguments are drawn.^(CGL 2021)^(Beekes 2010) Polybius uses it for a passage in a book and for opportunity, “room” for pity or defence.^(CGL 2021)

+

+ The Septuagint calls Jerusalem and the Temple “the holy place”, and in the New Testament it is also a burial place, a seat at table and a position in a ministry.^(LSJ 1940)^(Lust 2003)^(CGL 2021)^(BDAG 2000) Modern Greek [[m|el|τόπος|tr=tópos]] is a place, a country, and one's homeland; its mathematical sense of a locus follows New Latin ''locus''.^(Triantafyllidis 1998) English took ''topos'' as a literary term in 1948.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus is the first to use it.^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010)

+ * 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the place a thing occupies.^(CGL 2021)

+ * 4th century BC – Isocrates and Aeschines use it for the subject of a speech.^(CGL 2021)

+ * 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a topic of argument.^(CGL 2021)

+ * 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a passage in a book and for opportunity.^(CGL 2021)

+ * 1948 – English borrows ''topos''.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|place]], region, district.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # The place occupied by someone or something; position, location.^(CGL 2021)^(BDAG 2000)

+ # ''(New Testament)'' A burial place; a place at table.^(CGL 2021)^(BDAG 2000)

+ # A passage in a book.^(CGL 2021)

+ # A subject or [[m|en|topic]], or ''(rhetoric)'' a commonplace from which arguments are drawn.^(CGL 2021)^(Beekes 2010)

+ # Occasion, opportunity, room.^(CGL 2021)^(Lust 2003)

+ # ''(New Testament)'' A position or office.^(CGL 2021)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ἀτοπία|tr=atopía]]

+ * [[ἄτοπος|tr=átopos]]

+ * [[ἐκτοπίζω|tr=ektopízō]]

+ * [[ἔκτοπος|tr=éktopos]]

+ * [[ἐντόπιος|tr=entópios]]

+ * [[τοπάζω|tr=topázō]]

+ * [[τοπικός|tr=topikós]]

+ * [[τοπογραφία|tr=topographíā]]

+ * [[τοποθετέω|tr=topothetéō]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[ὑποτοπέω|tr=hupotopéō]]

+ * [[en|topos]]

+ * [[en|topic]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}