Μαγδαληνή

Forms

Μαγδαληνή (Magdalēnḗ) f (genitive Μᾰγδᾱληνῆς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek Μαγδαλά (Magdālā́), the town of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee, and means “woman of Magdala”.^[2][3][4][5] The Suda explains it simply as a name taken from a place.^[6][7]

The place name is Semitic: Etymonline traces it to an Aramaic name meaning “tower”, and Wiktionary compares Biblical Hebrew מִגְדָּלָהּ (migdaláh).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Gospels of the 1st century AD, as the byname of Mary Magdalene, the woman from Magdala.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In the New Testament the word is used only of Mary Magdalene, in all four Gospels.^[2][7] Christian writers kept it as her name, as Origen does, and it was borrowed into Coptic, where Sahidic and Bohairic manuscripts spell it Coptic ⲙⲁⲅⲇⲁⲗⲓⲛⲏ (magdalinē) and in other ways.^[8][9]

Through Latin Maria Magdalena the name reached the western languages.^[5] In English it gave Magdalene and, through French, maudlin, first “tearful” and then “mawkishly sentimental”, because medieval tradition identified her with the weeping sinner of Luke's Gospel.^[5] Modern Greek uses the name in an ironic phrase for someone who shows a hypocritical repentance.^[10]

Timeline

• 1st century AD – The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John name Mary Magdalene with it.^[2][8]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Origen uses it in his reply to Celsus.^[8]
• About AD 300 – The earliest Coptic manuscripts with the borrowed name are dated to this time.^[9]
• 10th century AD – The Suda explains it as a name derived from a place.^[6][7]
• About 1600 – English maudlin, from the name of Mary Magdalene, is first recorded meaning “tearful”.^[5]
• Modern Greek – An ironic phrase calls a person who feigns repentance a “penitent Magdalene”.^[10]

Meanings

Proper noun

1. Of Magdala: the byname of Mary Magdalene, a woman of Magdala who followed Jesus.^[2][3][4]

Related words

• Μαγδαλά (Magdālā́)
• English Magdalene
• English maudlin

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
3. ^ a b United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
4. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
7. ^ a b c Suda On Line: Byzantine Lexicography, ed. David Whitehead et al., Stoa Consortium, https://www.cs.uky.edu/~raphael/sol/
8. ^ a b c d Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ a b Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens