comedy的词源

英文词源

comedy

comedy: [14] Comedy is of Greek origin. It comes ultimately from Greek kōmos ‘revelry’. This appears to have been combined with ōidós ‘singer, poet’ (a derivative of aeídein ‘sing’, source of English ode and odeon) to produce kōmōidós, literally ‘singer in the revels’, hence ‘actor in a light amusing play’. From this was derived kōmōidíā, which came to English via Latin cōmoedia and Old French comedie.
=> encomium, ode

comedy (n.)

late 14c., from Old French comedie (14c., "a poem," not in the theatrical sense), from Latin comoedia, from Greek komoidia "a comedy, amusing spectacle," probably from komodios "actor or singer in the revels," from komos "revel, carousal, merry-making, festival," + aoidos "singer, poet," from aeidein "to sing," related to oide (see ode).

The passage on the nature of comedy in the Poetic of Aristotle is unfortunately lost, but if we can trust stray hints on the subject, his definition of comedy (which applied mainly to Menander) ran parallel to that of tragedy, and described the art as a purification of certain affections of our nature, not by terror and pity, but by laughter and ridicule. [Rev. J.P. Mahaffy, "A History of Classical Greek Literature," London, 1895]

The classical sense of the word, then, was "amusing play or performance," which is similar to the modern one, but in the Middle Ages the word came to mean poems and stories generally (albeit ones with happy endings), and the earliest English sense is "narrative poem" (such as Dante's "Commedia"). Generalized sense of "quality of being amusing" dates from 1877.

Comedy aims at entertaining by the fidelity with which it presents life as we know it, farce at raising laughter by the outrageous absurdity of the situation or characters exhibited, & burlesque at tickling the fancy of the audience by caricaturing plays or actors with whose style it is familiar. [Fowler]

中文词源

comedy（喜剧）：古希腊酒神节的狂欢游行

喜剧最早产生于古希腊。它的希腊文Komoidia是由Komos（意为狂欢游行）与aeidein（意为唱歌）合成。 它起源于农民收获葡萄时节祭祀酒神时的狂欢游行，游行者化装为鸟兽，载歌载舞，称之为Komos。最初时，游行队伍中只有一个合唱队，歌唱酒神的颂歌。后来，人们觉得过于单调，有人灵机一动，在队伍中增加了一个角色，专门负责与合唱队的队长按照事先写好的台词进行对白，这就是最初的喜剧演员，负责对白和表演。后来，演员的数量越来越多，表演的成分也慢慢超过了合唱，这就是希腊喜剧的诞生。由于喜剧的情节和台词都相对轻佻，所以在当时地位不高，诞生时间要晚于悲剧。

comedy： ['kɒmɪdɪ] n.喜剧

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：comedy 词源，comedy 含义。

comedy：喜剧

com, 缩写自希腊文komos, 欢乐，伴侣，来自com-, 强调 ，一起，-it, 走，即走到一起，聚会。 -edy, 词源同ode, 颂诗，颂歌。

comedy：喜剧

约在两千年前，古希腊有一个节目，叫做komos，这一天，人们载歌载舞，狂欢尽兴，一直到晚饭后以火把游行而告结束。这种喜庆活动是多利安人发起的，他们是古希腊人的一支，主要居住在伯罗奔尼撒半岛、克里特岛等地，以粗犷放荡闻名。因此，早期的狂欢活动大都是些放荡的内容。参加活动的主要歌手当时叫komoidos，即现在的“comedian（喜剧演员）”。英语的comedy就是从komoidos这个希腊词来的。