αἰτία

Forms

αἰτῐ́ᾱ (aitíā) f (genitive αἰτῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek αἴτιος (aítios, “responsible, guilty”), or formed directly from an unattested *αἶτος (*aîtos, “share”).^[2][1] That noun, attested in ἔξαιτος (éxaitos) and connected with αἴνυμαι (aínumai, “to take”) and αἶσα (aîsa, “share, lot”), also gave αἰτέω (aitéō, “to ask for”): the adjective was first “having a part in”, hence “responsible”.^[3][2] Chantraine compares Avestan aēta- (“fault, punishment”), a legal development of a different kind.^[3][2] The ⟨τ⟩ before ⟨ι⟩ was kept, perhaps to avoid confusion with αἴσιος (aísios).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Pindar and Herodotus, meaning responsibility, mostly in a bad sense: blame, or an accusation.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Homer has only the adjective αἴτιος (aítios).^[4] In law the noun meant a charge or accusation, and αἰτίαν ἔχειν “to be accused”.^[4][3] From “responsibility” it came to mean “cause, reason”, as in Herodotus' question of the cause for which Greeks and barbarians went to war.^[5][6] In Plato and Aristotle it became the technical term for “cause” in the theory of explanation, and in medicine it meant a disease.^[5][3] The development of αἰτία shaped that of Latin causa.^[3]

The New Testament uses it for a cause or reason, and for a charge against an accused man.^[7] Medieval Greek used it for a pretext, an excuse and a defect.^[8] Modern Greek αιτία (etía) means “cause, reason”.^[9][6]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of blame.^[4][5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it both of an accusation and of the cause of a war.^[4][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato makes it a philosophical term for “cause”.^[5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for a reason and for a charge.^[7]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it for a pretext, an excuse and a defect.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Responsibility.^[5][4]
2. Culpable responsibility, blame, guilt.^[5][4]
3. An accusation, a charge.^[5][4]
4. A cause, reason.^[5][7]
5. (philosophy) A cause in the theory of explanation.^[5]
6. A fault, a crime.^[5]
7. (medicine) A disease.^[3][2]

Word family

• αἰτιατός (aitiatós)
• αἰτιατικός (aitiātikós)
• αἰτιολογία (aitiologíā)
• αἰτιάομαι (aitiáomai)

Related words

• αἴτιος (aítios)
• αἰτέω (aitéō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki