Words & WritingGreek → English
Rhapsode
/ˈræpsoʊd/noun
A professional reciter of epic poetry in ancient Greece.
The Greek roots
ῥάπτειν
rháptein
to stitch, to sew
ᾠδή
ōidḗ
song
Literally: “song stitcher”
The story of the word
A rhapsode stitched songs. The word joins ῥάπτειν, to sew, to ᾠδή, song, and it describes what performers of Homer actually did: joining episodes end to end, staff in hand, without a lyre. Plato's Ion is a portrait of one of them, rich, vain, and unable to say where his skill comes from, which is the whole point of the dialogue.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
rhapsodyodeparodycomedy
In a sentence
A rhapsode could hold a crowd for hours on a single quarrel between two kings.
She recites like a rhapsode, which is charming for ten minutes.