septuagint

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsɛp.tjʊ.ə.d͡ʒɪnt/, /ˈsɛp.t͡ʃʊ.ə.d͡ʒɪnt/ (UK); /sɛpˈtu.ə.d͡ʒənt/, /sɛpˈtju.ə.d͡ʒənt/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin septuāgintā (“the seventy”), short for septuāgintā interpretēs (“the seventy translators”),^[2][3] from Latin septuāgintā (“seventy”),^[4][2][3][5] from septem (“seven”) (see seven) and -gintā (“tens”),^[4][2][3][6] from Proto-Indo-European *dkm-ta-, from the root Proto-Indo-European *dekm- (“ten”).^[3] The Latin translates Ancient Greek ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomḗkonta, “seventy”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seventy translators of the Old Testament into Greek, collectively (1563 in the OED; 1577 in Barnhart).^[7][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The name comes from the tradition that the translation was made in the 3rd century BC by seventy or seventy-two Jewish scholars, finished in seventy or seventy-two days;^[3][8][9] it is now believed to have been made at different times.^[3][8] The translation itself is called the Septuagint from 1633.^[7][2][5] In the 16th century the word also named the seventy elders of Israel,^[7] and since 1864 it means any group of seventy.^[7][10] The usual abbreviation is LXX.^[10][9]

Timeline

• 1563 – the seventy translators.^[7]
• 1564 – the seventy elders of Israel (obsolete).^[7]
• 1633 – the Greek Old Testament.^[7][2][5]
• 1864 – a group of seventy.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The oldest Greek translation of the Old Testament, made in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC and adopted by Greek-speaking Christians; usually capitalized.
2. The seventy or seventy-two scholars held to have made this translation.
3. A group of seventy.

Word family

• Septuagintal

Related words

• seven
• seventy
• Vulgate
• Pentateuch

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster