θέσπις
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
θεσπεσία
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
thespesios
English translation (word)
divine, wonderful
Transliteration (Etymon)
thespis
English translation (etymon)
inspired by gods
Century
9 AD
Source
idem
Ref.
Epimerismi homerici ordine alphabetico traditi, theta 12
Ed.
A.R. Dyck, Epimerismi Homerici: Pars altera. Lexicon αἱμωδεῖν [Sammlung griechischer und lateinischer Grammatiker (SGLG) 5.2] Berlin - New York: De Gruyter, 1995
Quotation
θεσπεσία (Β 367): ἐκ τοῦ θέσπις.
Translation (En)
Thespesia "expression of the divine will": from thespis "inspired by the gods"
Parallels
Etym. Gudianum, theta, p. 260 (Θεσπεσία, ἡ θεία, ἐκ τοῦ θεσπίς)
Modern etymology
Compound of θεός "god" + verbal adjective *σπετός "uttered" (cf. ἄσπετος "unspeakable"), from *sekw- "to speak" (ἔννεπε, ἕσπετε, Lat. inquit) (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG still has θεσπέσιος "extraordinarily beautiful" as a learned word
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
Derivational etymology deriving the noun from the shorter adjective.