λαός

Forms

λᾱός (lāós) m (genitive λᾱοῦ); second declension^[1] Ionic ληός, Ionic and Attic λεώς.^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek ra-wa-ke-ta lāwāgetās, “leader of the people”.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *lāwós (“people, crowd”), whose further origin is uncertain.^[1] Like the Germanic words for “people”, Old High German liut and Old English lēod, it was at first a collective noun, from which the plural ⟨λαοί⟩ “men” and a singular ⟨ληός⟩ “follower” were made.^[2][5] It is most often connected with Hittite laḫḫa- (“campaign”) and Old Irish láech (“warrior”), which would point to Proto-Indo-European *leh₂wos (“people under arms”),^[2][1][6] and the Etygram and Babiniotis accept this.^[7][6]

Frisk finds all the proposed explanations unsatisfying but takes the word to be inherited;^[5] Beekes leans to a Pre-Greek origin, because of the proper name Λήϊτος (Lḗïtos) with its Pre-Greek suffix ⟨-ιτ-⟩.^[5][2][1] Old comparisons with Hebrew words have been rejected.^[8] λεία (leía) “booty” is not related.^[2]

The ancients connected it with λᾶας (lâas) “stone”, after the myth of the people made from stones after the flood of Deucalion, and Chrysippus derived it from λαλέω (laléō) “to talk”.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets have the compound Mycenaean Greek ra-wa-ke-ta, the title of a leader of the people under arms.^[2][4] In the Iliad λαός (and the plural λαοί) mostly means the men, the soldiers of the army or a part of it; in the Odyssey it is mostly people, the subjects of a prince.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Unlike its synonyms δῆμος (dêmos) and στρατός (stratós), the word was never quite at home in Ionic and Attic;^[5] Attic used the old form λεώς in set phrases, such as the herald's call ἀκούετε λεῴ “hear, people!”, and Aristophanes uses it of the people assembled in the theatre.^[5][3] From Pindar on it is also a people or nation, all who go by one name.^[3][9]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is above all the people of Israel, the people of God, and in the New Testament the Jews as opposed to the Gentiles and then the Christians as opposed to the heathen; in the Septuagint it also meant the people as opposed to the priests and Levites, and so the laity.^{[3][10][11][2]} It was borrowed as Coptic ⲗⲁⲟⲥ (laos).^[12][1]

Medieval Greek kept the word for people, a population or a nation.^[13] Modern Greek has it as the learned word Modern Greek λαός (laós) “people, nation”.^[14][7]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – The Pylos tablets have the title ra-wa-ke-ta “leader of the people”.^[4][2]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it chiefly for the soldiers, the Odyssey for the subjects of a prince.^[3][9]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for a people or nation.^[3][15]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of the people assembled in the theatre and the assembly.^[3][15]
• Septuagint – It is used for the people of Israel, and for the people as opposed to the priests.^[3][10]
• New Testament – It is used for the Jews and for the Christians.^[3][11]
• Modern Greek – It is a learned word for a people or nation.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military) A body of men, an army, the troops.^[9][3]
2. The men under a leader; followers, a band of settlers.^[9]
3. The people under a ruler, his subjects; the common folk.^[9][3]
4. The people of a place; a crowd or assembly, as in the theatre or the assembly.^[3][9]
5. A people or nation.^[3][9]
6. (Septuagint, New Testament) The people of God, Israel; the Jews as opposed to the Gentiles, then the Christians; the people as opposed to the priests, the laity.^[3][11][10]

Word family

• λαοσσόος (lāossóos)
• λειτουργός (leitourgós)
• λαϊκός (lāïkós)
• λήϊτον (lḗïton)

Usage notes

In Attic the old form λεώς stayed in the herald's call to the people and in a few other set phrases.^[3][5]

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 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 j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
5. ^ a b c d e f g Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b c Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
13. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge