διοίκησις

Forms

δῐοίκησῐς (dioíkēsis) f (genitive δῐοικήσεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek διοικέω (dioikéō, “to manage, administer”) + -σις (-sis), the suffix of action nouns.^[1] The verb is made from δια- (dia-) and οἶκος (oîkos, “house”), so the noun is properly "housekeeping".^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first texts that have it are Thucydides and the Attic orators, where it is the administration of a city, above all of its finances.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Athens the word was used for public administration in general and especially for the management of state money; the official "in charge of the administration" (ὁ ἐπὶ τῇ διοικήσει) was the city's chief finance officer from the late 4th century BC.^[3][6][2] Aristotle's school also used it for the maintenance paid by the state to those it supported.^[3][4] In Ptolemaic Egypt it was the finance department of the kingdom.^[6][2]

Under Rome the word took on a territorial sense: Strabo uses it for the judicial districts of the province of Asia, the Latin conventus, and in late antiquity it named a group of provinces.^[6][2][3] The form Latin dioecesis was borrowed from it.^[7] Christian writers then used it for a church district, a diocese.^[6] Philosophers and the Apostolic Fathers spoke of God's διοίκησις, his government of the world.^[8][6] Coptic borrowed the word as Coptic ⲇⲓⲟⲓⲕⲏⲥⲓⲥ (dioikēsis), recorded from the 6th century AD.^[9]

Medieval Greek kept the word and its sense.^[10] Modern Greek διοίκηση (dioíkisi), a learned form of the ancient word, is administration and management, public or private.^[11]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of the administration of a state.^[4][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Lysias use it for the internal and financial administration of the city.^[2][6]
• 4th century BC – The Aristotelian Constitution of the Athenians speaks of the ordinary administration and of state maintenance payments.^[2][3]
• 3rd century BC – Egyptian papyri use it for the royal finance department.^[6]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses it for a Roman judicial district.^[6][2]
• 4th–5th century AD – Synesius uses it for a group of provinces, and Palladius for a church diocese.^[6]
• 6th century AD – Coptic texts have it as a loanword.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The learned διοίκηση (dioíkisi) means administration.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Housekeeping; the internal administration of a state or household.^[2][4]
2. Financial administration; the funds for it, maintenance costs.^[4][6]
3. (Ptolemaic Egypt) The department of finance.^[6][2]
4. Organization, arrangement (of a speech, of the universe).^[6][8]
5. (Roman period) A judicial district (Latin conventus); later, a group of provinces.^[2][6]
6. (Christian) A diocese.^[6]

Related words

• διοικέω (dioikéō)
• οἶκος (oîkos)
• Latin dioecesis

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 k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki