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Today, the word triumph can refer to any victory, but back when it was first being used in English in the fourteenth century, it specifically referred to "success in battle" and "military processions celebrating success in battle". Through Old French triumphe, the word comes the from Latin word triumphus, which described a Roman custom of allowing a general to parade into Rome after an important victory. That traces to the Greek word thriambos, which meant "hymn to Dionysus"; the association was that there were commonly processions held in the god's honor as the hymn was sung, and these processions were thought to be similar to the triumphus ceremony. According to Google Ngram Viewer, usage of the word triumph peaked in 1592 and has been declining since then.
3 Comments
d4v1d
1/11/2021 09:07:16 am
I'm not sold on a 'ph' as an authentic Latin digraph. 1/12/2021 05:36:44 am
It definitely was a word. Sources:
d4v1d
1/12/2021 05:59:39 am
That appears to be a later morphological shift. A local Latin professor said 'ph' digraph is imported from Greek at some point, the earliest expression is 'triumpus,' and digraphs are rare even in late Latin (this is one of those rarities, which is why I raise the issue). But I have made an inquiry with someone who specializes in both Latin and Greek morphology. Leave a Reply. |
AUTHOR
Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic. I have a linguistics degree from Harvard University, where I co-founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society and wrote my thesis on Serbo-Croatian language policy. In addition to etymology, I also really enjoy traveling, trivia, philosophy, board games, conlanging, and art history.
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