χαρίζομαι

Forms

χᾰρῐ́ζομαι (kharízomai) ^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek χάρις (kháris, “grace, favour”) + -ίζομαι (-ízomai), a middle verb meaning “to show favour”.^[1][2][3] The noun comes from the same root as χαίρω (khaírō, “to rejoice”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to make oneself agreeable to someone or to do something pleasing for them, as Odysseus was said to do with his sacrifices; it also means to satisfy someone by giving generously, as a father who would pay a large ransom.^[3] The perfect participle κεχαρισμένος describes a person dear to someone's heart and gifts that are welcome.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the verb covers a whole range of favours: pleasing or humouring someone, indulging one's belly, anger or desires, giving sexual favours to a lover, and doing a favour by giving a gift.^[2][5] Its usual construction is with the dative of the person favoured; the Atticist lexica note this construction, quoting Demosthenes' speech On the Crown.^[2][6]

In honorific inscriptions it was a common term for the generosity of officials and benefactors.^[4] In the New Testament it means to give freely as a favour, especially of God's gifts, and also to cancel a debt or to forgive a wrong; in the passive it is used of a criminal released to the people as a favour.^[4][2] Old Church Slavonic borrowed it as харизати (xarizati).^[1]

In Hellenistic Greek an active form χαρίζω appeared beside the middle, and it is the Modern Greek χαρίζω (charízo), “to give as a present”.^[7][8] Its sense of favouring someone unfairly is a learned semantic loan from the French word favoriser.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for pleasing someone and for giving generously; the perfect participle means “dear”.^[3][2]
• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho uses an epic imperative of it.^[2][9]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it for indulging one's anger or one's appetite.^[2][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Plato use it of giving sexual favours to a lover.^[2][9]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for God's free giving and for forgiving.^[4][10]
• Hellenistic period to Modern Greek – An active form develops beside the middle and survives as χαρίζω (charízo), the Modern Greek verb for giving a present.^[7][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be pleasing or agreeable to someone; in the perfect, to be dear to someone.^[2][3]
2. To gratify, humour or seek to please someone.^[2][5]
3. To indulge or give free rein to one's appetite, anger or desires.^[2]
4. To grant sexual favours to a lover.^[2][1]
5. To do a favour for someone; to give something as a favour, bestow it generously.^[2][3][4]
6. (New Testament) To cancel a debt; to forgive or pardon a wrong.^[4][1]
7. To hand someone over as a favour, to spare him or to let him be punished.^[2][4]

Word family

• χάρισμα (khárisma)
• χαριστήριος (kharistḗrios)

Related words

• χάρις (kháris)
• χαίρω (khaírō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck
7. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.