Etymologically
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αὐθέντης

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /au̯.tʰén.tɛːs/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /aɸˈθen.tis/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /afˈθen.tis/[1]

Forms

αὐθέντης (authéntēs) m (genitive αὐθέντου); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-) + -της (-tēs) on an earlier *ἕντης (*héntēs), as the variant αὐτοέντης (autoéntēs) in Sophocles and Hesychius' συνέντης (sunéntēs, “fellow worker”) show.[2][3] This form has the full grade of the root of ἁνύω (hanúō, “to accomplish”), Proto-Indo-European *senh₂- (“to accomplish, succeed”), so the word first meant “one who does a thing himself”.[2][1][4] The DGE allows some influence of θείνω (theínō, “to strike”) on the sense “murderer”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Eumenides, as an adjective of murder within the family: kindred bloodshed.[5][3][6] Herodotus, Euripides, Antiphon and Thucydides use it for a murderer, especially one who kills a kinsman, and Antiphon also for a suicide.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Euripides already uses it more loosely, of a member of a murderer's family, and once for a master: the people as “master of the land”.[5] In Polybius and Diodorus it is the perpetrator or author of a deed, and then generally a doer.[5][3] The sense “master, lord” spread in the Koine (papyri, the Shepherd of Hermas, the magical papyri), and the Atticist Phrynichus condemned it.[5][7]

In medieval Greek the word for “lord, master” became Byzantine Greek ἀφέντης (aphéntēs), under the influence of the medieval verbs ἀφεντεύω and διαφεντεύω (the latter from Latin dēfendō); it is Modern Greek αφέντης (aféntis) “master, lord”, while the learned Modern Greek αυθέντης (afthéntis) also survives.[8][9][10] The noun is the source of Turkish efendi.[7][10]

Timeline

  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it as an adjective, of murder within the family.[5][6][4]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus, Euripides and Thucydides use it for a murderer.[5][3][4]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it once for a master, the people as master of the land.[5][7]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the perpetrator of a deed.[5][3][4]
  • 2nd century AD – Phrynichus condemns it as non-Attic.[5][4]
  • Medieval Greek – The form Byzantine Greek ἀφέντης (aphéntēs) “lord, master” appears.[8][9]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek αφέντης (aféntis) is a master or lord.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A murderer, especially one who kills a kinsman; a suicide; loosely, one of a murderer's family.[5][3]
  2. The perpetrator or author of a deed; a doer.[5][3]
  3. (Koine) A master, lord.[5][7]

Adjective

  1. Of murder, committed by one of the same family.[5][3]

Word family

  • αὐθεντέω (authentéō)
  • αὐθεντικός (authentikós)
  • ἁνύω (hanúō)
  • αὐτός (autós)
  • Turkish efendi

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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 h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  7. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας