(sŏfˈə-klēzˌ) 496?-406 B.C.
Greek dramatist. Together with Euripides and Aeschylus, he is considered one of the greatest dramatists of ancient Greece. His surviving plays include Ajax, Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus.
Related Forms:
Word History: Personal names like
Sophocles and
Pericles are compounds typical not only of Greek but also of other early Indo-European languages.
Sophocles is formed from
sophos, “wise” (as in
philosophy, “love of wisdom”), and
-klēs, “glorious, famous,” and thus means “having wise fame, famous for wisdom.” The
peri- in
Pericles is a prefix that functions as an intensive adverb, so his name means “very famous, famous all around.” The element
-klēs, “glorious, famous,” appearing in these and other Greek names, comes from
-kleēs, from an earlier
klewēs. This itself is derived from the noun
klewos (
kleos in Classical Greek), “fame, glory.” The Greek and Indo-European root is
*kleu-, *klu- “to hear, hear much of, be famous.” An adjective formed to this root,
*klutos, “renowned,” became
*hluthaz, “famous,” by Grimm's Law in Germanic. It appears as the first element of the Old High German name
Hluodowīg, “famous in battle,” which was borrowed into Latin as
Ludovīcus, becoming
Ludwig in modern German,
Luigi in Italian,
Clovis and later
Louis in French, and
Aloys in Provençal (more familiar in its Latin form,
Aloysius). The Indo-European root
*kleu- is also the ancestor of the word
Slav, “the famous people,” and of Slavic names ending in
-slav, like
Mstislav in Russian, “having vengeful fame,” and
Stanislaw in Polish, “famous for withstanding (the enemy).”
