πνευματικός

Forms

πνευμᾰτῐκός (pneumatikós) m (feminine πνευμᾰτῐκή, neuter πνευμᾰτῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneûma, “wind, breath, spirit”) + -ικός (-ikós), built on the stem πνευματ- (pneumat-).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

BDAG notes that the word was used from the Presocratics on, mostly of wind or breath.^[2] The earliest texts in the corpus are Aristotle's, where it describes motions caused by wind, a violent blast of air, the part of the body that serves breathing, and things that cause wind in the belly.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In natural science the adjective described what is of the nature of air: Theophrastus speaks of the coldness of air, Strabo and Philo of a subtle, airy substance opposed to the moist one, and Plutarch of a dry vapour.^[4] Physicians used it of organs inflated with air, of foods and wine that cause flatulence, and of the left ventricle of the heart, which in Erasistratus' theory carried breath rather than blood;^[4] Galen calls the school of doctors who traced health to the pneuma the Pneumatists.^[4] A machine moved by air was called pneumatic.^[4]

In the letters of Paul the word took its Christian sense: it means “spiritual”, opposed to σαρκικός “of the flesh” and ψυχικός “natural”, and in most passages it refers to the divine Spirit: spiritual gifts, blessings and songs, and the spiritual person who has received the Spirit.^[2][3][4]

Medieval vernacular Greek used the adjective for “spiritual, intellectual”, and the masculine as a noun for a priest who hears confession.^[6] Both survive as learned words in Modern Greek πνευματικός (pnevmatikós), the adjective meaning “intellectual, spiritual” and the noun “confessor”.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of wind, of breathing, and of what causes flatulence.^[4][5][9]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of air.^[4][9]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses it of a subtle, airy substance.^[4][9]
• 1st century AD – Paul's letters use it of what belongs to the divine Spirit, opposed to the flesh.^[2][4][3]
• 2nd century AD – Galen names the Pneumatist school of physicians after it.^[4][9]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use the masculine as a noun meaning “confessor”.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of wind or air; moved by air.^[4][10]
2. Of the nature of air; of subtle, airy substance.^[4][10]
3. (medicine) Inflated with air; causing flatulence.^[4]
4. Of breath or breathing, or (medicine) conveying the pneuma.^[4]
5. (New Testament) Of the spirit, spiritual, opposed to fleshly.^[4][2][3]
6. (New Testament) Caused by or filled with the divine Spirit; as a noun, a spiritual person.^[2][3]

Noun

1. οἱ Πνευματικοί (medicine): the Pneumatists, a school of physicians.^[4]
2. (Byzantine) A confessor.^[6]

Related words

• πνεῦμα (pneûma)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press