σῆμα

See also: σήμα

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

σᾶμᾰ (sâmă) — Doric
σῆμ’ (sêm’) — apocopic

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *dʰyéh₂mn̥, from *dʰyeh₂- (“to notice”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dʰeyh₂-), although Beekes is skeptical of the semantics. Cognate with Sanskrit ध्यायति (dhyāyati, “think of, imagine”), ध्यान (dhyāna, “meditation”).^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /sɛ̂ː.ma/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈse̝.ma/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.ma/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.ma/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.ma/

Noun

σῆμᾰ • (sêmă) n (genitive σήμᾰτος); third declension

mark, sign, token
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 10.466
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.326
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.250
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.455
- 638 BCE – 558 BCE, Solon, Collected Works 25.4
- 680 BCE – 645 BCE, Archilochus, 49
1. a sign from the gods, an omen, portent
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.353
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 8.171
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 13.244
  - 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 4.355
  - 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 498, (compare The Libation Bearers 259)
  - 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Fragments 379
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 20.111
2. a sign to begin something, watchword, signal, banner
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 21.231
  - 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 448
  - c. 440 BCE, Euripides, Rhesus 12
  - 408 BCE, Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1377
3. the sign by which a grave is known, mound, cairn, barrow
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.814
  - 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, The Shield of Heracles 477
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.222
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.75
  - 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Olympian Ode 10.30
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.93
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 4.72
  - 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.34
  - 411 BCE, Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 886–888
  - 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 493A
4. a mark to show the case of a quoit or javelin
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.843
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 8.192
  - Dion., P. 18
5. a token by which one's identity or commission was certified
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.176–178
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 7.189
  - 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 387
  - 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 404
  - 458 BCE, Euripides, Electra 456
  - 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 614
6. a constellation
  - 424 BCE, Euripides, Hecuba 1273
  - 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Fragments 379

Declension

Third declension of τὸ σῆμᾰ; τοῦ σήμᾰτος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ σῆμᾰ tò sêmă	τὼ σήμᾰτε tṑ sḗmăte	τᾰ̀ σήμᾰτᾰ tằ sḗmătă
Genitive	τοῦ σήμᾰτος toû sḗmătos	τοῖν σημᾰ́τοιν toîn sēmắtoin	τῶν σημᾰ́των tôn sēmắtōn
Dative	τῷ σήμᾰτῐ tōî sḗmătĭ	τοῖν σημᾰ́τοιν toîn sēmắtoin	τοῖς σήμᾰσῐ / σήμᾰσῐν toîs sḗmăsĭ(n)
Accusative	τὸ σῆμᾰ tò sêmă	τὼ σήμᾰτε tṑ sḗmăte	τᾰ̀ σήμᾰτᾰ tằ sḗmătă
Vocative	σῆμᾰ sêmă	σήμᾰτε sḗmăte	σήμᾰτᾰ sḗmătă
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ἄσημος (ásēmos)
σημαίνω (sēmaínō)
σημεῖον (sēmeîon)

Descendants

⇒ French: sémaphore (modern coinage)
- → Crimean Tatar: semafor
- → English: semaphore
- → Italian: semaforo
- → Polish: semafor
- → Portuguese: semáforo
- → Spanish: semáforo
- → Turkish: semafor

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “σῆμα”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1323

“σῆμα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
σῆμα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
σῆμα in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- armorial bearings idem, page 40.
- badge idem, page 59.
- barrow idem, page 64.
- blazonry idem, page 82.
- cemetery idem, page 122.
- coat idem, page 141.
- countersign idem, page 178.
- crest idem, page 184.
- device idem, page 220.
- emblem idem, page 267.
- escutcheon idem, page 282.
- figure-head idem, page 319.
- grave idem, page 371.
- indication idem, page 432.
- insignia idem, page 444.
- landmark idem, page 475.
- mound idem, page 543.
- omen idem, page 572.
- password idem, page 597.
- portent idem, page 627.
- sepulchre idem, page 754.
- sign idem, page 774.
- signal idem, page 775.
- star idem, page 811.
- symbol idem, page 850.
- tomb idem, page 880.
- watch-word idem, page 966.
Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “σῆμα”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1323

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