[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]
Minurizô: thrênô: ê to êrema aidô. para to meion. Platôn en tritôi Politeias: minurizôn te kai geganômenos hupo tês ôidês. anti tou oiktrai phônêi chrômenos kai thrênôn. ê oligêi phônêi chrômenos. Aristophanês: minurizontes melê archaiomelisidônophrunichêrata.
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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