μέθοδος

Forms

μέθοδος (méthodos) f (genitive μεθόδου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek μετά (metá, “after”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way, road”), literally “a going after”.^[1][2][3][4] It is made like ἔφοδος (éphodos), σύνοδος (súnodos) and κάθοδος (káthodos).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest records are in Plato, where it means the pursuit of knowledge, an inquiry, and the way such an inquiry is carried on, a method.^[2][3][5] The literal sense “following after, pursuit” is known only from a verse quoted in the Suda.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Plato and Aristotle made it a word of philosophy: the dialectical method, a line of inquiry, a system, often joined with τέχνη (tékhnē), “art, skill”.^[2][3][4] Aristotle also uses it of an inquiry.^[2][3][4] Plato even uses it of a doctrine, that everything is in motion.^[2] Later it meant a technique used in an art or science (Plutarch), and in medicine the “methodic” school.^[3][2] The rhetorician Hermogenes uses it of the means of finding arguments and of the way a subject is treated.^[2]

In a bad sense it was a trick or ruse (Plutarch, Vettius Valens), and the Second Book of Maccabees uses it of a stratagem.^[2]

Medieval Greek used it of a set of systematic actions and of a way or means.^[6] Modern Greek μέθοδος (méthodos) is a learned word.^[7] Through Late Latin methodus it passed into many languages.^[4] English method is recorded from the early 15th century, first of the systematic treatment of disease.^[4][8]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of inquiry and method, and of the dialectical method.^[2][3]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of a method or system and of an inquiry.^[2][3]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of a technique and of a trick.^[2][3]
• 2nd century AD – Hermogenes uses it in rhetoric of the means of finding arguments.^[2]
• 1400s – English borrows it as method, through Latin.^[8]
• Modern Greek – μέθοδος (méthodos) is used as a learned word for “method”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A following after, pursuit.^[2]
2. The pursuit of knowledge, inquiry, investigation; a treatise.^[2][3]
3. The way of carrying out an inquiry: method, system.^[2][3]
4. A technique used in an art or science; in rhetoric, the means of doing something.^[3][2]
5. (medicine) The methodic school of medicine.^[2]
6. A trick, ruse, stratagem.^[2]

Word family

• μεθοδικός (methodikós)
• ἀμέθοδος (améthodos)
• εὐμέθοδος (euméthodos)
• ἐμμέθοδος (emméthodos)

Related words

• ὁδός (hodós)
• ἔφοδος (éphodos)
• σύνοδος (súnodos)
• Latin methodus
• English method

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com