Etymologically
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νέος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /né.os/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈne.os/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈne.os/[1]

Forms

νέος (néos) m (feminine νέᾱ or νέη, neuter νέον); first/second declension[1] Mycenaean Greek ne-wo, feminine plural ne-wa, genitive ne-wo-jo.[2][3] Cypriot superlative νεϝόστατος still writes the /w/.[4] Ionic feminine νέη; contracted feminine νῆ (Xenophanes).[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *néwos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *néwos (“new”),[1][4][3] from the root *neu̯- (“new”).[6] The /w/ was lost between vowels (⟨νέϝος⟩ > νέος), as Mycenaean Greek ne-wo and a Cypriot superlative written with ⟨ϝ⟩ show.[4][1]

Cognate with Hittite neu̯a-, Sanskrit नव (náva), Latin novus, Tocharian B ñuwe and Old English nīewe (whence new).[4][1] A derivative in *-i̯o- is found in Lithuanian naũjas.[4] The verb νεάω (neáō) matches novō (“to renew”), and νεότης (neótēs) matches novitās (“newness”), but these may be parallel formations.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae already have Mycenaean Greek ne-wo “new”.[2][3] In Homer it means both “young”, of youths and young men (κοῦροι νέοι), and “new, fresh” (νέος θάλαμος, a new chamber).[5][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek οἱ νέοι were the young men, a term that Xenophon could stretch to men of thirty, and the word took on the faults of youth: rashness, impetuosity, childishness.[5][7] Of things and events it meant new or recent, and in tragedy, as in Aeschylus' “what is new?”, often something unexpected and ominous.[5][7] Inscriptions of the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD show οἱ νέοι as an organized body, distinct from the ephebes and the boys.[5]

In the New Testament it is the new wine that bursts old wineskins.[9] Medieval vernacular Greek had the popular forms Byzantine Greek νιος (nios) and νέγος, with Pontic νέγιος today.[10] Modern Greek νέος (néos) is the learned form beside popular νιος, and some of its senses are modelled on French nouveau.[11][12] English neo- comes from it.[13]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – Tablets from Knossos and Pylos have Mycenaean Greek ne-wo “new”.[2][3]
  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of young men and of new things.[5][8]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the neuter for news with an ominous undertone.[5][14]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon reckons men up to thirty among the young.[5][14]
  • 2nd century BC – An inscription from Magnesia on the Maeander distinguishes οἱ νέοι from the ephebes and the boys.[5]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospels speak of new wine in old wineskins.[9]
  • 4th century AD – Libanius cites the saying “the young man will be young”.[5][14]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek νέος (néos) is the learned form, beside the popular νιος.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Young, youthful (of persons); as a noun, a young man or woman, in the plural the young.[5][7]
  2. Newly born or grown (of animals, plants); fresh.[7]
  3. Belonging to or typical of the young: youthful, and so rash, impetuous, childish.[7][5]
  4. New, made or brought into being for the first time.[7][5][9]
  5. Recent, fresh; of news, new and unexpected, often untoward.[5][7]
  6. Succeeding what went before: a new generation, a new master, a new moon.[7]
  7. (neuter νέον as adverb) Lately, just now.[5]

Word family

  • νεαίρετος (neaíretos)
  • νεανίας (neāníās)
  • νεανικός (neanikós)
  • νεᾶνις (neânis)
  • νεανίσκος (neānískos)
  • νεαρός (nearós)
  • νεότης (neótēs)
  • νεωστί (neōstí)
  • νεώτερος (neṓteros)
  • νεωτερίζω (neōterízō)

Usage notes

Photius and the Atticist lexicon record the phrase νέος ἐστὶ καὶ ὀξύς “he is young and sharp”, said of someone ignorant and rash.[15][16] Libanius quotes ὁ νέος ἔσται νέος, “the young will be young”, much like “boys will be boys”.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  3. ^ a b c d Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  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. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  14. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  15. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
  16. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck