ἠρεμέω + νόος
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English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
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Quotation
Κατὰ τί εἰρήνη; Κατὰ τὸ ἠρεμεῖν τὸν νοῦν
Translation (En)
Why is eirēnē "peace" <so called>? From the fact that the mind (ton noûn) is quiet (ēremeîn)
Parallels
Etym. Gudianum, epsilon p. 427 (Εἰρήνη· παρὰ τὸ εἴρειν καὶ λέγειν ἐν αὐτῇ, εἴπερ Ἄρης, ὁ πόλεμος, κατὰ στέρησιν τῆς ῥήσεως λέγεται. ‖ ἢ παρὰ τὸ εἴρω, ὅ ἐστι διαλέγομαι, καὶ τὸν <εἰ>ρήσω μέλλοντα. ἢ διὰ τὸ ἠρεμεῖν τὸν νοῦν); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 303 (Εἰρήνη: Παρὰ τὸ εἴρω, τὸ λέγω· ἢ παρὰ τὸ εἴρειν ἡμᾶς ἐπ’ αὐτήν· ἢ διὰ τὸ ἠρεμεῖν τὸν νοῦν); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, epsilon p. 891 (τί εἰρήνη; κατὰ τὸ ἠρεμεῖν τὸν νοῦν).
This etymology may be alluded to in Proclus, Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, vol. 2 p. 316: ἡ ἀριθμητικὴ τῆς Εἰρήνης, τῷ ἴσῳ ὑπερεχούσης καὶ ὑπερεχομένης, ᾗ καὶ ἐν τοῖς συναλλάγμασι χρώμεθα ἐν εἰρήνῃ, δι’ ἣν καὶ τὰ στοιχεῖα ἠρεμεῖ (τὰ στοιχεῖα ἠρεμεῖ means "the elements stay quiet" ; the word has a physical and a mathematical sense (see the eponymic Euclid's treatise), but τὰ στοιχεῖα can also mean "the letters" of a word, and there may be a pun here)
Comment
This etymology is possible only in an iotacising state of language, as it implies the homophony of the initial sequences ειρ and ηρ, both pronounced [ir]. The word is parsed as a compound, the second element of which is νόος "mind", which accounts for the [n] of εἰρήνη. This is a descriptive etymology: εἰρήνη refers to peace in the political meaning (the antonym of war) but also to peace as a mental state, which was very important in Christian doctrine, and this etymology starts from the psychological meaning of the word