πάτριος

Forms

πᾰ́τρῐος (pátrios) m (feminine πᾰτρῐ́ᾱ, neuter πᾰ́τρῐον); first/second declension^[1] Lyric poetry and tragedy decline it with a feminine πατρία.^[2] Attic prose, comedy and inscriptions usually treat it as an adjective of two endings.^[2]

Etymology

It is a derivative from Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr, “father”) with the adjective suffix -ιος (-ios).^[1][2] The NIL places it with Sanskrit पित्र्य (pítrya-, “paternal”) under a formation Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tr-iyo- from *ph₂tér- (“father”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pindar uses it of the ancestral land of a family and of a father's voice.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word meant both “of one's father” and “of one's forefathers”; the second sense prevailed.^[2][5] Tragedy speaks of a native land and a father's house, and Herodotus, Thucydides and the orators of ancestral gods, rites and laws.^[2][5] Thrasymachus and Aristotle speak of the “ancestral constitution” (πάτριος πολιτεία (pátrios politeía)).^[2][5] The neuter plural meant inherited customs, and “it is traditional” could be put with the neuter alone.^[5]

The Septuagint uses it chiefly in 2 Maccabees, of what comes down from the fathers.^[6] Medieval vernacular Greek kept it for what comes from one's father or native city.^[7] Modern Greek πάτριος (pátrios), a learned word, means ancestral, and πάτρια (pátria) the inherited customs.^[8]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of an ancestral land.^[2][4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of ancestral gods.^[2][5]
• 5th century BC – Thrasymachus speaks of the ancestral constitution.^[2]
• 2nd century BC – A document from Egypt names the ancestral gods.^[2]
• Modern Greek – The learned πάτριος (pátrios) means ancestral.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to one's father.^[2][5]
2. Of one's forefathers; ancestral, hereditary, traditional, of gods, rites, laws and constitutions.^[2][5]
3. Of one's native land or city.^[5][7]
4. (neuter plural, as a noun) Inherited customs.^[5]
5. (neuter, impersonal) It is traditional (to do something).^[5]
6. (Pamphylian, as a noun) An uncle.^[2]

Word family

• πάτρια (pátria)

Related words

• πατήρ (patḗr)
• πατρικός (patrikós)
• πατρίς (patrís)

Usage notes

The rhetorical lexica explain why Apollo was “ancestral” for the Athenians: the first Athenians believed they were born of earth and sun, and Apollo was taken to be the sun.^[9]

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck