πίστις

Forms

πῐ́στῐς (pístis) f (genitive πῐ́στεως or πῐ́στῐος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰéydʰtis,^[1] more exactly *bʰidʰ-ti-, an abstract noun in -τις (-tis) from the zero grade of the root *bʰeydʰ- (“to entrust oneself, trust”).^[2][1] Within Greek it is formed from the root aorist of πείθομαι (peíthomai, “to trust, obey, be persuaded”), like πιστός (pistós, “faithful”).^[3] The later πεῖσις (peîsis) is a new formation of the same verb.^[1]

Latin fīdus (“faithful”) and fīdō (“to trust”) are from the same root.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hesiod's Works and Days has the first record: “trust and mistrust alike have ruined men”, of trust in others.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 6th and 5th centuries BC it meant both trust in others and trustworthiness, good faith, honesty;^[5][6] Theognis even names Trust as a goddess.^[5][6] It also came to mean what gives trust: a pledge or guarantee, as in the oaths and handshakes that bound agreements, and in rhetoric a proof or argument, the orator's means of persuasion.^[5] The orators use it in a commercial sense, “credit”, and later Greek translated Latin legal terms with it, such as bona fide.^[5]

In the New Testament it took on a religious sense: faith in God and in Christ, set against sight and knowledge, and faithfulness.^[5][6][8] Spicq points out that no secular text has a parallel to this faith, but that the word's older senses of persuasion, commitment and fidelity explain its New Testament use.^[9]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept it, and Modern Greek has πίστη (písti), “belief, faith, loyalty”, whose banking sense of credit follows French crédit and English credit.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of trust in others.^[5][7][12]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it for good faith and names Trust as a deity.^[5][6][12]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it in the commercial sense of credit.^[5][12]
• 1st century AD – Paul's letters use it for religious faith, set against sight and knowledge.^[5][8]
• Modern Greek – πίστη takes on the banking sense of credit from French and English.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Trust or confidence in others or in a thing.^[5][6]
2. Good faith, trustworthiness, honesty, loyalty.^[5][6]
3. Credence, credibility of things said.^[5][6]
4. (commerce) credit.^[5]
5. A position of trust; something entrusted, a trust.^[5]
6. A pledge or guarantee of good faith, such as an oath.^[5]
7. A means of persuasion, an argument or proof, especially in oratory.^[5]
8. (Koine, New Testament) Religious faith, belief in God or Christ; faithfulness.^[8][6]

Related words

• πείθω (peíthō)
• πιστός (pistós)
• πιστεύω (pisteúō)
• Latin fīdus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
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. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge