λειτουργία

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /leː.tuːr.ɡí.aː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /li.turˈʝi.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /li.turˈʝi.a/^[1]

Forms

λειτουργῐ́ᾱ (leitourgíā) f (genitive λειτουργῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from λειτουργός (leitourgós, “public servant”) with the abstract suffix -ία (-íā).^[1][2] Λειτουργός is formed from an Ionic adjective meaning “public”, related to λαός (laós, “people”), and the element -ουργός (-ourgós, “working”), from ἔργον (érgon, “work”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to do, work”).^[2][3] The older Attic spelling was ⟨λητουργία⟩, found in an inscription of 386 BC.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Andocides and Lysias use it for the public services that wealthy Athenian citizens performed at their own expense.^[4]

Semantic evolution

At Athens and elsewhere, as on Siphnos and at Mytilene, a leitourgia was such a public service.^[4] Demosthenes speaks of the regular annual liturgies, and resident foreigners had liturgies of their own.^[4] BDAG notes that it was the usual word for a service performed by an individual for the state or the public cult.^[5]

In the Septuagint it is religious service, the ministry of priests, and in the New Testament it is used almost always of religious service.^[6][5][3] In Christian Greek it became the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy: medieval vernacular Greek uses it for the celebration of the Eucharist, for prayers and hymns, and for the bread offered for it.^[7] Modern Greek λειτουργία (leitourgía) is both the church service and, after French fonction and fonctionnement, the function or working of a machine or an organ; the popular λειτουργιά is the bread of the offering.^[8]

English liturgy came from French or Late Latin in the 1550s.^[2]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Andocides and Lysias use it for a public service paid by a citizen.^[4]
• 386 BC – An Attic inscription has the spelling λητουργία.^[4]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes speaks of the annual liturgies.^[4]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for priestly service.^[6]
• 14th–17th century – Vernacular Greek uses it for the Divine Liturgy.^[7]
• 1550s – English borrows liturgy.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A public service performed by a citizen at his own expense, a liturgy.^[4][1]
2. (Septuagint, New Testament) Religious or priestly service, ministry.^[6][5]
3. (Christian) The celebration of the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy.^[7]

Related words

• λειτουργός (leitourgós)
• λειτουργέω (leitourgéō)
• λαός (laós)
• ἔργον (érgon)
• English liturgy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki