[Meaning] I bewail; or I sing softly. [The verb comes] from
mei=on ['less'].[1]
Plato in [the] third [book] of
Republic [writes]: "both warbling and illuminated under the [sc. influence of the] song."[2] Meaning using a pitiable voice and bewailing. Or using a tiny voice.[3]
Aristophanes [writes]: "[they] warbling old-honey-
Phrynichus-Phoenissae-lovely songs."[4]
*minuri/zw: qrhnw=: h)\ to\ h)re/ma a)/|dw. para\ to\ mei=on. *pla/twn e)n tri/tw| *politei/as: minuri/zwn te kai\ geganwme/nos u(po\ th=s w)|dh=s. a)nti\ tou= oi)ktra=| fwnh=| xrw/menos kai\ qrhnw=n. h)\ o)li/gh| fwnh=| xrw/menos. *)aristofa/nhs: minuri/zontes me/lh a)rxaiomelisidwnofrunixh/rata.
In later Greek the headword verb seems to confine itself to unhappy vocalization (hence 'bewail', etc.), but in the classical examples presented in this entry, the more upbeat 'warble' seems a better translation.
[1] Theodoridis, commenting on
Photius mu464, suggests that this and a similar word in the mss of
Photius are homophonic spelling errors for
mu/w ('I close the mouth'), adducing the etymologies in
Etymologicum Gudianum and
Etymologicum Magnum s.v.
minuri/zw.
[2]
Plato,
Republic 411A; cf the
scholia ad loc. (For one word extracted from it -- the perfect participle
geganwme/nos -- see already at
gamma 88.)
[3] The entry up to this point is the same as the one in
Timaeus'
Platonic Lexicon (995b.27-30). For looser parallels see the references in
Photius mu464 Theodoridis.
[4]
Aristophanes,
Wasps 219, already quoted at
alpha 4075.
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