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ἵμερος. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
ἵμερος, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
ἵμερος in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
ἵμερος you have here. The definition of the word
ἵμερος will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
ἵμερος, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Ancient Greek
Etymology
The old connection with Sanskrit ईष्म (īṣma, “spring; a god of love”), which belongs to इच्छति (icchati, “to desire, wish”), may be semantically possible, but it leaves the secondary suffix -ερο- (-ero-) unexplained. Another proposal by Bally assumed a reconstruction *si-smer-o-, by comparison of Avestan 𐬵𐬌𐬱𐬨𐬀𐬭𐬀𐬥𐬙 (hišmarant, “well conducted”) to Sanskrit स्मरति (smarati, “to remember, call to mind”). As remarked by Weiss, the problem with these proposals is that they lead to expect Aeolic Greek *ἵμμερος (*hímmeros), while it is consistently found ἵμερος (hímeros) in Sappho and Alcaeus. Weiss convincingly derives this word from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂y- (“to tie, bind”) instead: he reconstructs a heteroclitic *seh₂i-mr̥, *sh₂i-men-, with a suffix *-mer/n- also found in τέκμαρ (tékmar) and ἦμαρ (êmar); he also compares αἵμων (haímōn, “eager”). This means that originally this word meant "bond, spell".
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /hǐː.me.ros/ → /ˈi.me.ros/ → /ˈi.me.ros/
Noun
ῑ̔́μερος • (hī́meros) m (genitive ῑ̔μέρου); second declension
- yearning, longing
- desire, love
Declension
Derived terms
Descendants
Further reading
- “ἵμερος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “ἵμερος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “ἵμερος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
- ἵμερος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
- ἵμερος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
- “ἵμερος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
- Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- affection idem, page 16.
- desire idem, page 215.
- glow idem, page 363.
- longing idem, page 498.
- love idem, page 502.
- lust idem, page 505.
- meek idem, page 522.
- passion idem, page 597.
- pining idem, page 613.
- wistfulness idem, page 983.
- yearning idem, page 995.
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN