πολίτης

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /po.lǐː.tɛːs/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /poˈli.tis/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /poˈli.tis/^[1]

Forms

πολῑ́της (polī́tēs) m (genitive πολῑ́του, feminine πολῖτῐς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from πόλις (pólis, “city”) with the suffix -της (-tēs).^[1][2][3] Wiktionary explains its long ῑ from the stem of πόλις, as in the Homeric variant πολιήτης (poliḗtēs), which led to the reanalysis of the word as ⟨πολ-ίτης⟩.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means the inhabitants of a town, its citizens, as in the Odyssey where the townspeople draw water from a spring.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is the citizen, a free member of the city with its rights, and the fellow citizen.^[1][3] Plato uses it for one's compatriots.^[1][3] Ammonius distinguishes it from πατριώτης (patriṓtēs): a politēs is a free man of the same city as another free man, a patriōtēs a slave of the same country as another slave.^[4]

In the New Testament it is the citizen of a city or a country and the compatriot, and Spicq shows how Paul's civic language made Christians citizens of a heavenly city.^[3][5] Medieval Greek used it for the inhabitant of the heavenly city of God, and the capitalised Πολίτης came to mean a Greek of Constantinople, “the City”.^[6][7] Modern Greek πολίτης (polítis) is the citizen of a state, and, after French citoyen, a civilian or private person as opposed to the authorities.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – It is used for the citizens of a town.^[2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for fellow citizens.^[3]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for a countryman.^[8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for citizens and compatriots.^[3]
• Byzantine period – Πολίτης comes to mean a man from Constantinople.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A citizen, a free member of a city.^[1][3]
2. An inhabitant of a town.^[2][3]
3. A fellow citizen, compatriot.^[1][3]
4. (Christian) A citizen of the heavenly city.^[5][6]

Word family

• πολῖτις (polîtis)
• πολιτεύω (polīteúō)
• πολιτικός (polītikós)
• πολιτοφύλαξ (polītophúlax)

Related words

• πόλις (pólis)
• πολιτεία (politeía)
• κοσμοπολίτης (kosmopolítēs)
• English cosmopolitan

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
4. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
5. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
7. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft