δόγμα

Forms

δόγμᾰ (dógma) n (genitive δόγμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek δοκέω (dokéō, “to seem, think”) + -μα (-ma), a noun of result: “what seems (right) to someone”.^[1][2][3] According to Beekes, δοκέω (dokéō) is a secondary verb derived from δέχομαι (dékhomai, “to take, accept”) (older δέκομαι (dékomai)).^[4][1] That verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to take”), which is also the source of Latin doceō (“to teach”) and dignus (“worthy”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in Attic prose of the 5th and 4th centuries BC.^[5][6] In Andocides it is a public decree, and Plato uses it for an opinion or belief, including a belief that a whole city shares.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its two classical senses follow from δοκέω (dokéō): what seems true to someone (an opinion, a conviction) and what seems good to those in authority (a decision, a decree).^[2][3][7] Xenophon uses it of a resolution passed by an army, Demosthenes of the decisions of the Amphictyons, and Polybius uses it to render the Roman senatus consultum, the decree of the Senate.^[2][7] Aristotle and later writers use it for the doctrines of a philosopher or a school, and Epicurus, Strabo and Philo for philosophical teachings in general.^[2][3]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is mostly a ruling: the edict of Caesar Augustus in Luke 2:1, the ordinances of the Mosaic law in Ephesians and Colossians, and the decisions of the apostles in Acts 16:4.^[8] From the Hellenistic period it also came to mean a fundamental religious teaching, the sense of the Christian dogmas.^[7] It passed into Latin as dogma,^[9][1] and Coptic took it over as well, in manuscripts from about AD 800.^[10] It survives in Modern Greek as a learned word, δόγμα (dógma), which also took the sense “guiding principle, doctrine (in politics)” from English doctrine.^[11][7]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Andocides uses it for a public decree, and Plato and Xenophon for an opinion and for a resolution.^[2][5][6]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes speaks of the decrees of the Amphictyons, and Aristotle uses it for philosophical doctrines.^[2][3][5]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a decree of the Roman Senate.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the decree of Caesar and for the ordinances of the law.^[8]
• Modern Greek – The learned δόγμα (dógma) means a dogma, a doctrine and a guiding political principle.^[11][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. That which seems true to someone: an opinion, a belief, a notion.^[2][3]
2. (philosophy) A doctrine held by a philosopher or a school.^[2][3]
3. A decision or resolution; a public decree or ordinance, and in Roman contexts a decree of the Senate.^[2][3]
4. (New Testament) A rule or ordinance to be observed: an imperial edict, the commandments of the law, the decisions of the apostles.^[8]

Word family

• δογματοποιέω (dogmatopoiéō)
• δογματίζω (dogmatízō)
• δογματικός (dogmatikós)
• δογματογραφέω (dogmatographéō)
• δογματογράφος (dogmatográphos)

Related words

• δοκέω (dokéō)
• δόξα (dóxa)
• Latin dogma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki