πλοῦτος

Forms

πλοῦτος (ploûtos) m or n (genitive πλούτου or πλούτους, variously declined); second declension, third declension^[1] Mycenaean has the personal name Mycenaean Greek po-ro-u-te-u, read Plouteus.^[2] In late Greek and in Paul's letters it is also neuter, τὸ πλοῦτος (genitive πλούτους).^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek πλέω (pléō, “to sail, float”) + -τος (-tos), from the root of “to sail, float” in an older sense “to flow”: *plou-to- was first a “flow, abundance”.^[2][1][3] The suffix is the same as in βίοτος (bíotos) and νόστος (nóstos).^[2][6] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to flow, swim”).^[2]

Frisk takes the first meaning to have been a rich yield of grain,^[6] and Hesychius says that πλοῦτος was the name of the surplus of barley and wheat.^[6][2][3] Porzig thought instead of the flooding of the fields by rain.^[6]

Ancient writers derived it differently: the Etymologicum Magnum makes it a contraction of a compound of πολύς (polús, “much”) and a verb for taking.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, meaning wealth or riches, as in the Iliad (1.171).^[3][2][9]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod's Theogony personifies it: Plutus, god of wealth, is the son of Demeter.^[3][5] Later poets represent him as blind, as in Timocreon and the comic poet Antiphanes.^[3] The god of the dead Πλούτων (Ploútōn), the giver of the grain stored in the earth, has his name from the same word.^[2]

In classical Greek πλοῦτος is the ordinary prose word for wealth, opposed to poverty, πενία (peníā), while ὄλβος (ólbos) is poetic.^[5][3] The plural meant treasures or fortunes, and with a genitive it is a store of silver or gold.^[3] It was used figuratively from Empedocles on, of a wealth of thought or of wisdom (Plato, Euthyphro 12a), and Xenophon speaks of the wealth in one's soul.^[3][10]

The New Testament uses it for earthly riches and for the riches of God's grace and glory,^[4] and Paul often makes it neuter.^[4][3] Medieval and Modern Greek keep πλούτος (ploútos), with a neuter plural πλούτη (ploúti) formed in the Hellenistic period, and its old derivative πλουτίζω (ploutízo) “to enrich”.^[11][12][13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for wealth and riches.^[3][9]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony makes Plutus, god of wealth, the son of Demeter.^[3][5]
• 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it of a wealth of understanding, and Herodotus of a treasure of silver.^[3][14]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato opposes it to poverty and speaks of a wealth of wisdom.^[3][10]
• 4th century BC – The comic poet Antiphanes says that Plutus makes people blind.^[3][14]
• 1st century AD – Paul uses it of the riches of God's grace, often as a neuter noun.^[4][3]
• Modern Greek – πλούτος (ploútos), with the plural πλούτη (ploúti), is the usual word for wealth.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wealth, riches; in the plural, treasures or fortunes.^[3][10]
2. A treasure, with the genitive of what it consists of (silver, gold).^[3]
3. (figurative) A wealth or abundance of something: of wisdom, of thought.^[3][10]
4. (New Testament) The riches of God's grace or glory.^[4]
5. Plutus, the god of wealth, son of Demeter.^[3]

Word family

• πλούσιος (ploúsios)
• πλουτέω (ploutéō)
• πλουτίζω (ploutízō)
• Πλούτων (Ploútōn)
• πλουτοκρατία (ploutokratíā)

Related words

• πλέω (pléō)
• πλύνω (plúnō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ a b c d Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
14. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge