κλῆσις

Forms

κλῆσῐς (klêsis) f (genitive κλήσεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek καλέω (kaléō, “to call”) + -σις (-sis), with the monosyllabic stem κλη- (klē-) of the verb.^[1][2] Beekes counts it among the derivatives of the verb built on that stem, beside κλητός (klētós, “called, invited”) and κλητήρ (klētḗr, “herald, witness”).^[2] The two stems of the verb, disyllabic in καλέσαι (kalésai) and monosyllabic in κέκλημαι (kéklēmai), point to a root ending in a laryngeal, Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call”).^[2][3][1]

Cognate with Latin calō (“to announce, summon”), clāmō (“to shout”), Old High German hellan (“to resound”) and Hittite kalliš- (“to call, summon”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in Attic of the late 5th century BC, in the speeches of Antiphon and in Aristophanes' Clouds, where it is the summons that calls a defendant or a witness into court.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In classical Attic the legal sense was the common one: to drop one's summonses was to give up a prosecution.^[4][7] Ammonius distinguishes it from πρόσκλησις (prósklēsis): κλῆσις was a summons to any of the courts, πρόσκλησις one to the Areopagus.^[8] Plato and Xenophon also use it for any call or greeting addressed to someone, and Xenophon and Demosthenes for an invitation to a dinner or to the Prytaneum.^[4][5] Polybius uses it of a call for help to an ally.^[5][4]

Plato uses it for the name by which a thing is called, and Aristotle's logic for the nominative form of a noun, as against the oblique cases.^[4][5] The Stoic Cleanthes called the names of the gods sacred appellations.^[4]

In the New Testament it is almost always God's calling: the invitation to salvation, and in Paul the state of life in which a person was called.^[9][4] Dionysius of Halicarnassus equated it with Latin classis, and Saalfeld lists the Latin word as derived from it.^[4][10]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word.^[11] Modern Greek κλήση (klísi) is a learned revival, used for a summons, an official notice to appear, and a telephone call, the last senses modelled on French appel and English call.^[12]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Antiphon and Aristophanes use it for a summons to court.^[4][5][13]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon use it for a call and for an invitation to dinner, and Plato for a name.^[4][5][13]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the nominative of a noun.^[4][13]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a call for help.^[4][5][13]
• 1st century AD – The Pauline letters use it for the divine calling.^[9][4]
• 3rd century AD – Menander Rhetor uses it for an invocation of the gods.^[4][13]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts keep the word.^[11]
• Modern Greek – The learned κλήση (klísi) means a summons and, after French and English, a telephone call.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A call, the act of calling a person or an animal, or a greeting.^[5][4]
2. A call for help, addressed to an ally.^[5][4]
3. (law) A summons to appear in court, and so a prosecution.^[4][5]
4. An invitation, especially to a dinner.^[4][5]
5. An invocation of the gods.^[4]
6. A name or appellation.^[4][5]
7. (grammar) The nominative form of a noun.^[4]
8. (New Testament) The divine calling, and the state in which one was called.^[9][4]

Word family

• ἀνάκλησις (anáklēsis)
• ἐπίκλησις (epíklēsis)
• παράκλησις (paráklēsis)
• πρόκλησις (próklēsis)
• πρόσκλησις (prósklēsis)

Related words

• καλέω (kaléō)
• κλητός (klētós)
• ἐκκλησία (ekklēsía)
• Latin classis

Usage notes

LSJ has a separate κλῆσις, from κλείω (kleíō), meaning the closing of harbours, in Thucydides, also written κλεῖσις (kleîsis).^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w 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 l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
8. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge