οἰκονομικός

Forms

οἰκονομῐκός (oikonomikós) m (feminine οἰκονομῐκή, neuter οἰκονομῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

Formed from Ancient Greek οἰκονόμος (oikonómos, “manager of a household, steward”) + -ικός (-ikós), with the adjective suffix -ικός.^[1][2][3] οἰκονόμος (oikonómos) is itself a compound of οἶκος (oîkos, “house”) and νέμω (némō, “to manage, to distribute”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plato and Xenophon, in the 4th century BC, use it for a man practised in the management of a household, opposing it to the statesman's art.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Xenophon's dialogue on running a household and an estate is titled Oikonomikos (“the household manager”), and the treatise on public finance ascribed to Aristotle is called Oikonomika.^[5][6] In Xenophon the word already means “careful with money, thrifty”, and the feminine, with τέχνη (tékhnē) understood, is the art of household management.^[5][6] Aristotle's Politics calls “economic” the rule of a man over his children, wife and household, and applies it to patriarchal kingship.^[5][6] Philo and Plutarch have the adverb, and a scholiast uses it in a literary sense, “in a well-ordered way”.^[5]

It was borrowed as Latin oeconomicus, and through Latin and French it gave English economic, first “of household management”, then “frugal”; the sense “relating to economics” dates from 1835.^[8][9] The Modern Greek οικονομικός (ikonomikós) continues the ancient sense “thrifty”, and is a learned word, partly modelled on French économique, for “relating to the economy” and “cheap”.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon use it of a man skilled in managing a household, and Xenophon of a thrifty one.^[5][6][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a man's rule over his household.^[5][6]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus writes a treatise on household management that uses it.^[5]
• 1590s – English borrows economic through Latin oeconomicus.^[9]
• Modern Greek – οικονομικός (ikonomikós) means “economic”, “thrifty” and “cheap”.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Practised in the management of a household, an estate or public affairs.^[5][6]
2. Thrifty, economical, careful with money.^[5][6]
3. Of a householder or manager; relating to the rule of a family.^[6][5]
4. (substantive) A household manager; ἡ οἰκονομική (τέχνη): household management, husbandry; τὰ οἰκονομικά: household or financial affairs.^[5][6]

Related words

• οἰκονόμος (oikonómos)
• οἰκονομία (oikonomíā)
• Latin oeconomicus
• English economic

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
3. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
4. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge