οἰκουμένη

Forms

οἰκουμένη (oikouménē) f (genitive οἰκουμένης); first declension^[1] Also οἰκεομένη (oikeoménē), with the vowels uncontracted.^[1]

Etymology

It is the feminine present passive participle from Ancient Greek οἰκέω (oikéō, “to inhabit”), used as a noun by leaving out γῆ (gê, “land, earth”): “the inhabited land”.^[1][2][3] The verb is formed from οἶκος (oîkos, “house”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is used as a noun from the 5th century BC: BDAG cites it from Herodotus on, and GLAUx finds it in Thucydides, Sophocles and Euripides.^[2][5] At first it meant an inhabited region.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Demosthenes it is the Greek world, set against the lands of the barbarians.^[6] Aristotle uses it for the whole inhabited world, including non-Greek lands such as Ethiopia, India and Scythia, as opposed to regions that may be uninhabited; the treatise On the Cosmos counts Asia, Libya and Europe as “this” world, and speaks of other worlds in the plural.^[6] Greek geographers drew it as a circle bounded by Oceanus, a picture Herodotus already criticised.^[7]

In Hellenistic Greek it could mean the whole world, and a papyrus flatters a Ptolemy as ruling all of it.^[6] Under Rome it became the Roman world: inscriptions call Nero the saviour and benefactor of the world, and Luke and Acts use the word in this sense.^[2][6] The New Testament also uses it for the inhabited earth as against the heavens and the underworld, and Hebrews speaks of “the world to come”.^[2][6]

From the 4th century AD the derived adjective οἰκουμενικός (oikoumenikós) became a Church term, as in the ecumenical councils.^[4] In Byzantine Greek the noun meant the civilised world, above all the empire, and medieval vernacular texts use it for the earth, for all mankind and for the whole Christian world.^[1][8] It lives on as the learned Modern Greek οικουμένη (oikouméni), the whole earth.^[3] Latin oecumene and the English ecumene are borrowed from it, and ecumenical comes through Latin from the adjective.^[9][1][10]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for inhabited land.^[2][5][11]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for the Greek world.^[6][11]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the whole inhabited world, non-Greek lands included.^[6][11]
• 3rd century BC – A papyrus speaks of a Ptolemy as king of the whole world.^[6]
• 1st century AD – Inscriptions honour Nero as benefactor of the world, and the Gospel of Luke uses it for the Roman world.^[2][6]
• 4th century AD – The adjective οἰκουμενικός (oikoumenikós) becomes a Church term.^[4]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it for the earth, mankind, the Christian world and the empire.^[8]
• Late 16th century – The English word ecumenical is formed from the Latin form of the adjective.^[10]
• Modern Greek – The learned οικουμένη (oikouméni) means the whole earth.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An inhabited region.^[6][1]
2. The Greek world, as opposed to the lands of the barbarians.^[6][12]
3. The whole inhabited or known world; loosely, the whole world.^[6][12][2]
4. The Roman empire, the Roman world.^[6][2]
5. (New Testament) In the phrase ἡ οἰκουμένη ἡ μέλλουσα (hē oikouménē hē méllousa), the world to come.^[6][1]
6. (Byzantine) The civilised world, above all the lands of the empire.^[1]

Word family

• οἰκουμενικός (oikoumenikós)

Related words

• ἀντίποδες (antípodes)
• περίοικοι (períoikoi)
• οἰκέω (oikéō)
• οἶκος (oîkos)
• Latin oecumene
• English ecumenical

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
3. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
4. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press