Etymologically
Log in

νεκρός

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 16:57. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ne.krós/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /neˈkros/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /neˈkros/[1]

Forms

νεκρός (nekrós) m (feminine νεκρᾱ́, neuter νεκρόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed with the suffix -ρός (-rós) from the root of νέκυς (nékūs, “corpse”), Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *neḱ- (“to perish”); the /r/-formation has no parallel outside Greek.[2][1] Its expected Indo-European shape would have given *ἀκρός (*akrós), so it was probably formed within Greek.[1]

The root noun of νέκες (nékes) corresponds exactly to Latin nex (“violent death”) and Avestan nas- (nas-, “distress”), and the /u/-stem of νέκυς (nékūs) to nasu- (nasu-, “corpse”).[2][3][4] The root was a verb, as in Sanskrit नश्यति (náśyati, “perishes”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it from the Iliad (4.467) for a corpse, always of people: “you will strip the dead” (6.71).[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Thucydides uses it of those killed in battle, recovered under truce.[6] In the plural it was the dead, the inhabitants of the underworld (the Odyssey, Thucydides, the Septuagint, the New Testament).[2][3] Euripides and Antiphon use it for a dying man, and Sophocles and Menander for a living corpse, one as good as dead.[7] In Hellenistic and later Greek it is also an adjective, “dead”, as in Pindar, the New Testament and Plutarch.[2][7]

It is often the first part of compounds, such as νεκροδέγμων (nekrodégmōn) “receiving the dead” (Aeschylus).[2] Medieval and Modern Greek νεκρός “dead” continues it.[8][9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for corpses.[5][6]
  • Homer – The Odyssey uses the plural for the dead in the underworld.[2][3]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for the war dead.[6][10]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it as an adjective.[7]
  • Modern Greek – νεκρός means dead.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A corpse, dead body.[6][7]
  2. (plural) The dead, in the underworld.[2][7]
  3. A dying man; one as good as dead.[7]

Adjective

  1. Dead.[2][7]
  • Latin nex
  • English necro-

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  6. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge