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αὐτόνομος

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Etymology and origin of the Ancient Greek word αὐτόνομος

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
400s BC Herodotus, Sophocles and Thucydides More words from the 5th century BC
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek αὐτός,νόμος
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek νέμω (némō)
Ancient Greek νόμος (nómos)
Ancient Greek αὐτόνομος (autónomos)
Derivations
αὐτονομία (autonomíā)
From the same root
Ancient Greek νέμεσις (némesis) ← νέμω
Ancient Greek οἰκονόμος (oikonómos) ← νέμω
English autonomous ← αὐτόνομος

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /au̯.tó.no.mos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /aɸˈto.no.mos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /afˈto.no.mos/[1]

Forms

αὐτόνομος (autónomos) m (feminine αὐτονόμη, neuter αὐτόνομον); first/second declension[1] LSJ and the DGE give it two endings, αὐτόνομος, -ον.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek αὐτο- (auto-, “self”) + νόμος (nómos, “custom, law”).[1][4] Chantraine cites it among the many compounds of this kind.[5] The noun νόμος (nómos) is derived from νέμω (némō, “to distribute”),[1] from Proto-Indo-European *nem- (“to assign, allot”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 5th century BC Herodotus and Thucydides use it of peoples and cities that live under their own laws, and Sophocles, in the Antigone, of going to Hades by one's own choice.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its main use was political: an αὐτόνομος city kept its own laws and was not subject to another, and the word is very frequent in Thucydides.[2][3] It is often paired with ἐλεύθερος, “free”, as in an inscription of the 4th century BC and in Polybius.[3][2] Antipater of Sidon used it of animals that graze and roam at will.[2][3]

English autonomous (1777) comes from it, first in translations of Montesquieu.[4] Modern Greek αυτόνομος (aftónomos) is a learned word whose present senses follow French autonome.[6]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it of independent peoples and cities, and Sophocles of acting of one's own will.[2][3]
  • 4th century BC – An inscription pairs it with ἐλεύθερος (eleútheros, “free”).[3]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the same pairing, and Antipater of Sidon uses it of freely grazing animals.[3][2]
  • 1777 – English borrows it as autonomous.[4]
  • Modern Greek – The learned word αυτόνομος (aftónomos) means autonomous, self-governing.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Living under one's own laws, independent, of persons and states.[2][3]
  2. Acting of one's own free will.[2][3]
  3. Of animals, grazing and roaming at will.[2][3]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  4. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Cite this entry

“Αὐτόνομος.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/grc/%CE%B1%E1%BD%90%CF%84%CF%8C%CE%BD%CE%BF%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%82. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

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