πατριώτης

Forms

πᾰτρῐώτης (patriṓtēs) m (genitive πᾰτρῐώτου); first declension^[1] Dialect form πατριώτας.^[2] Feminine πατριῶτις.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek πατριά (patriā́, “lineage, clan”) + -ώτης (-ṓtēs),^[1][4] with the suffix also seen in ἡλικιώτης (hēlikiṓtēs, “age-mate”).^[4] LSJ and Babiniotis derive it instead from πάτριος (pátrios, “of one's fathers”), and Babiniotis compares στρατιώτης (stratiṓtēs, “soldier”).^[3][5] Πάπυρος also links the sense “compatriot” with that adjective.^[4] Both words go back to πατήρ (patḗr, “father”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 5th century BC Sophocles' chorus in the Oedipus Tyrannus calls Mount Cithaeron Oedipus's fellow countryman,^[3][2][7] and a Delphic inscription of the same century uses the word of a member of a πατριά (patriā́), a clan.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The grammarians say that the word properly belonged to non-Greeks, who shared only a country (a πατρίς (patrís)), while Greeks who shared a city were πολῖται (polîtai).^[3][4] In this sense Plato's Laws advises that slaves should not be compatriots of one another, so that they serve more easily, and Pherecrates mocks Lycurgus as an Egyptian by calling the Egyptians his compatriots.^[3][2] Lucian plays on the same idea: when a speaker says that someone is his compatriot, the reply is that the speaker must then be a barbarian without knowing it.^[3] Used as an adjective it means “native”: Xenophon speaks of native horses, and Plutarch calls Dionysus a native god.^[3][2] Late writers such as Iamblichus use it simply for a citizen.^[3]

Late Latin borrowed the word as patriota “fellow countryman” in the 6th century.^[6] English took patriot in the 1590s, directly and through French patriote, first meaning “compatriot”; the sense “lover and defender of one's country” followed about 1600.^[6] The vernacular kept the ancient word with its ancient meaning in the Middle Ages.^[8] In the modern language πατριώτης (patriótis) still means a compatriot or someone from the same village, and is a friendly way of addressing a stranger, but its sense “patriot” is a learned borrowing from French patriote.^[9][4]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles calls Mount Cithaeron the compatriot of Oedipus.^[3][2][7]
• 5th century BC – A Delphic inscription uses it of a member of a clan, and Pherecrates calls the Egyptians “compatriots of Lycurgus”.^[3][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of slaves from the same country, and Xenophon of native horses.^[3][2][7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch calls Dionysus a native god.^[3][7]
• 2nd century AD – Pollux records that the word was used of barbarians, and Lucian jokes on that use.^[3][7]
• 6th century AD – Late Latin has patriota “fellow countryman”.^[6]
• 1590s – English patriot is first recorded, meaning “compatriot”.^[6]
• 1857 – Modern Greek πατριωτικός (patriotikós) “patriotic” is formed after French patriotique.^[5]
• Modern Greek – πατριώτης (patriótis) means a compatriot, and in its learned sense a patriot, after French patriote.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fellow countryman, compatriot; properly of non-Greeks, who shared a country but not a city.^[3][2]
2. (as an adjective) Native, of one's own country: of horses, of a god, and of Mount Cithaeron as Oedipus's own.^[3][2]
3. (late) A citizen, the same as πολίτης (polī́tēs).^[3]
4. (inscriptions) A member of a πατριά (patriā́), a clan.^[3]

Word family

• πατριῶτις (patriôtis)
• συμπατριώτης (sumpatriṓtēs)

Related words

• πατριά (patriā́)
• πάτριος (pátrios)
• πατρίς (patrís)
• πατήρ (patḗr)
• Latin patriota
• English patriot

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes it from πολίτης (polī́tēs): a πολίτης comes from the same city, a free man to a free man, while a πατριώτης comes from the same country, as one slave is to another.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
5. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
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. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)