σαββατικός

Forms

σαββᾰτικός (sabbatikós) m (feminine σαββᾰτική, neuter σαββᾰτικόν); first/second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek σάββατον (sábbaton, “Sabbath”) + -ικός (-ikós).^[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An epigram of Meleager in the Greek Anthology speaks of a “sabbatical love”, that is, love for a Jew.^[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

In Josephus it means simply “of the Sabbath”, and the astrologer Vettius Valens speaks of the “sabbatical day”.^[1][3] The word is rare in the corpus: GLAUx has four instances, in Josephus and Origen.^[6]

Papyros records it for the Jewish sabbatical year, in which the land was left fallow, and for the “Sabbath day's journey” of 2,000 cubits.^[7] In Modern Greek it means “of Saturday”.^[4][7]

It was borrowed into Latin as sabbaticus, the source of English sabbatical (1590s, “recurring every seventh”; the noun for a year's leave is from 1934).^[8]

Timeline

• 2nd–1st century BC – Meleager speaks of a “sabbatical love”, love for a Jew.^[1][2]
• 1st century AD – Josephus uses it for what belongs to the Sabbath.^[1][3]
• 2nd century AD – Vettius Valens names the “sabbatical day”.^[1]
• 1590s – English sabbatical is first recorded, through Latin.^[8]
• Modern Greek – The word means “of Saturday”.^[4][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the Sabbath, sabbatical.^[1][3][2]
2. (figurative) Jewish: “sabbatical love”, love for a Jew.^[1][3][5]
3. (Jewish usage) In phrases for the sabbatical year, the seventh month and the distance one could walk on the Sabbath.^[7]

Related words

• Latin sabbaticus
• English sabbatical

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
3. ^ a b c d e Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
4. ^ a b c Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
5. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com