μετάθεσις

Forms

μετάθεσῐς (metáthesis) f (genitive μεταθέσεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek μετατίθημι (metatíthēmi, “to place differently, change”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary analyses it as μετα- (meta-) and θέσις (thésis, “placing”), the noun of τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”).^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first secure use is in Thucydides, where a clause of a treaty allows changes: LSJ reads it as the right of changing sides, the CGL as a change of wording or amendment.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Demosthenes speaks of altering the words of a law, and Aristotle uses the word for a change of position, the basic sense, and for change in general.^[2][3] Polybius widened it to a change of circumstances, of opinion or of sides, the correction of mistakes, a change of subject, and barter.^[3][2] Physicians used it for the shifting of the fetus (Soranus) and the couching of a cataract (Galen),^[2] and the critic Demetrius for plagiarism as opposed to imitation.^[2]

The Septuagint has it once, in 2 Maccabees.^[7] In the Letter to the Hebrews it is the change of the law and the taking up of Enoch to heaven.^[4][8] The grammarians made it a technical term: for Apollonius Dyscolus a change of a letter, for Tryphon the transposition of letters, as in κραδίη for καρδία.^[2] In Byzantine Greek Psellus used it for passing from life to death.^[9]

Late Latin borrowed it as metathesis,^[10][11] whence English metathesis, a term of grammar from the 1570s.^[11] Modern Greek μετάθεση (metáthesi) is a learned word: besides a change of position it means the transfer of an official to another post, a sense modelled on German Versetzung or French déplacement.^[12]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of a treaty clause allowing change.^[2][3][13]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a change of position.^[2][3][13]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a change of sides or opinion and for barter.^[2][3][13]
• 1st century AD – The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of a change of the law.^[4]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus uses it as a grammatical term for a change of a letter.^[2][13]
• 1570s – English borrows metathesis as a term of grammar.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A change of position, transposition.^[2][3]
2. A change in general; a change of wording, an amendment.^[2][3]
3. A change of sides or of opinion, defection; the power of changing sides.^[2][3]
4. Exchange, barter.^[2][3]
5. (medicine) The shifting of the fetus; the couching of a cataract.^[2]
6. (grammar) The change of a letter; the transposition of letters, metathesis.^[2]
7. (rhetoric) Plagiarism, as opposed to imitation.^[2]
8. (New Testament) Removal to another place, of Enoch taken up to heaven.^[4][8]

Related words

• μετατίθημι (metatíthēmi)
• θέσις (thésis)
• τίθημι (títhēmi)
• Latin metathesis
• English metathesis

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 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 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
5. ^ Μανδουλίδης, Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της αρχαίας ελληνικής
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ a b Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
9. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge