Atticism

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Ancient Greek Ἀττῐκῐσμός (Attikismós). By surface analysis, Attic +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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Atticism (countable and uncountable, plural Atticisms)

  1. (ancient history, uncountable) Attachment to, collaboration with, favouring of, or siding with Athens and/or Athenians, especially in the context of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.E.).
    • 1628, Thucydides, translated by Thomas Hobbes, Eight Bookes Of the Peloponnesian Warre, reprint edition, published 1634, § 4.133.1, page 286:
      The ſame Summer, the Thebans demoliſhed the walles of the Theſpians, laying Atticiſme to their charge.
    • 〃, § 8.38.3, page 489:
      Tydeus and his Complices, had bin put to death by Pædaritus for Atticiſme.
    • 1837, Connop Thirlwall, A History of Greece, § IV.xxxi.7, page 188:
      Lysias and his brother were compelled to quit Thurii on the charge of Atticism (of taking the Athenian side in political questions) and they returned to Athens, which was then under the government of the Four Hundred.
  2. (singular only) The prestige dialect of Classical Greek, as spoken and written by the inhabitants of Attica (chiefly Athens) in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E.; Attic Greek.
    1. (history, singular only) The enduring rhetorical movement, begun in the 1st century B.C.E., whose members strove to emulate the style of the best Attic orators of that Classical period; especially in contrast with Asianism or Hellenism. (Its leading early proponent, Dionysius of Halicarnassus [c. 60–p. 7 B.C.E.], identified Lysias [c. 445–380 B.C.E.] as “the perfect model of the Attic dialect”, whose virtues he enumerates to be “purity of language, correct dialect, the presentation of ideas by means of standard, not figurative expressions; clarity, brevity, concision, terseness, vivid representation…, the pleasing arrangement of words after the manner of ordinary speech…, charm and a sense of timing which regulates everything else”.)[1]
      1. (chiefly historical or dated, singular only, by extension) The stylistic principles of Greek Atticism in application to other languages, especially to Latin.
    2. (countable) An expression or idiom characteristic of or peculiar to Attic Greek, especially an elegant and refined, if grammatically irregular, usage.
      • 1611, Thomas James, A Treatiſe of the Corruption of Scripture, Councels, and Fathers, § II.19, page 68:
        By the Cardinals own confeſsion, this Agapetus liued at Conſtantinople in Iuſtinians time: where it was a great matter for him, no doubt, in ſo long time, to learn to make ſuch a Greek booke as this is; which yet for the ſtile and Atticiſmes, comes a great deale ſhort of Baronius commendation.
      • 1813 May 9th (Sunday), authorship uncertain, but probably Leigh Hunt or Thomas Barnes, “Theatrical Examiner, No. 137.”, in The Examiner, number 280, page 298/1:
        Her mistakes, if [Catalani] makes any, are perceptible only to the musical pedant who thinks a deviation from a scientific canon ill compensated by the most fanciful beauties of execution. Such a man would accuse Thucydides of false grammar on account of his atticisms, or Homer of incorrect quantity for the occasional artful protraction of a short syllable.
    3. (countable, by extension) A refined felicity or well-turned phrase, especially one deemed ungrammatical. (In Newcome, aposiopesis, dislocation, and inverse attraction, respectively.)
      • 1642 April, John Milton, An Apology Againſt a Pamphlet Call’d A Modeſt Confutation of the Animadverſions upon the Remonſtrant againſt Smectymnuus., page 14:
        There while they acted, and overacted, among other young ſcholars, I was a ſpectator; they thought themſelves gallant men, and I thought them fools, they made ſport, and I laught, they miſpronounc’t and I miſlik’t, and to make up the atticiſme, they were out, and I hiſt.
      • 1792, William Newcome, An Hiſtorical View of the Engliſh Biblical Tranſlations, chapter V, Rule II., page 279:
        There is an elegant Atticiſm which occurs Luke xiii. 9. “If it bear fruit, well.” We find this figure of ſpeech in the Chaldee, Dan. iii. 15; and, I think, in the Hebrew, Exod. xxxii. 32: “Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their ſin, well.”
      • 〃, Rule XII., page 335:
        As for Ephraim, their glory ſhall flee away as a bird: which…form reſembles Salluſt’s plebs urbana ea vero præceps ierat [Bellum Catilinae 37.4]; and that common Atticiſm, urbem quam ſtatuo, veſtra eſt [Virgil, Aeneid 1.573].
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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Διονύσιος Ἀλεξάνδρου Ἁλικαρνασσεύς [Dionysius Alexandri Halicarnasseus] (1974) Stephen Usher, transl., Critical Essays, Volume I: Ancient Orators. Lysias. Isocrates. Isaeus. Demosthenes. Thucydides. (Loeb Classical Library; 465), Cambridge: Harvard University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, Lysias [original: Λυσίας], §§ 2 and 13, pages 23 and 47:
    He is completely pure in his vocabulary, and is the perfect model of the Attic dialect — not the archaic dialect used by Plato and Thucydides, but that which was in general currency in his day, as exemplified in the speeches of Andocides, Critias and many other orators.
    [original: καθαρός ἐστι τὴν ἑρμηνείαν πάνυ καὶ τῆς Ἀττικῆς γλώττης ἄριστος κανών, οὐ τῆς ἀρχαίας, ᾗ κέχρηται Πλάτων τε καὶ Θουκυδίδης, ἀλλὰ τῆς κατ’ ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον ἐπιχωριαζούσης, ὡς ἔστι τεκμήρασθαι τοῖς τε Ἀνδοκίδου λόγοις καὶ τοῖς Κριτίου καὶ ἄλλοις συχνοῖς.]
    …the virtues of style which I have assigned to him: purity of language, correct dialect, the presentation of ideas by means of standard, not figurative expressions; clarity, brevity, concision, terseness, vivid representation, the investment of every person with life and character, the pleasing arrangement of words after the manner of ordinary speech, the choice of arguments to suit the persons and the circumstances of the case, the ability to win over and persuade, charm and a sense of timing which regulates everything else. Anyone who learned these qualities from Lysias would improve his own style.
    [original: …τὰ…περὶ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν ἀγαθὰ τοῦ ῥήτορος ταῦτα· συγκεφαλαιώσομαι γὰρ τὰ ῥηθέντα· τὸ καθαρὸν τῶν ὀνομάτων, ἡ ἀκρίβεια τῆς διαλέκτου, τὸ διὰ τῶν κυρίων καὶ μὴ τροπικῶν κατασκευῶν ἐκφέρειν τὰ νοήματα, ἡ σαφήνεια, ἡ συντομία, τὸ συστρέφειν τε καὶ στρογγυλίζειν τὰ νοήματα, τὸ ὑπὸ τὰς αἰσθήσεις ἄγειν τὰ δηλούμενα, τὸ μηδὲν ἄψυχον ὑποτίθεσθαι πρόσωπον μηδὲ ἀνηθοποίητον, ἡ τῆς συνθέσεως τῶν ὀνομάτων ἡδονὴ μιμουμένης τὸν ἰδιώτην, τὸ τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις προσώποις καὶ πράγμασι τοὺς πρέποντας ἐφαρμόττειν λόγους, ἡ πιθανότης καὶ τὸ πειστικὸν καὶ ἡ χάρις καὶ ὁ πάντα μετρῶν καιρός. ταῦτα παρὰ Λυσίου λαμβάνων ἄν τις ὠφεληθείη.]

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