ἀέναος

Forms

ἀέναος (aénaos), adjective of two endings (-ος, -ον); adverb ἀενάως.^[1][2][3] Ionic ἀένναος (aénnaos) (Herodotus), also αἰέναος (aiénaos) (Aeschylus, a Laconian inscription) and contracted Attic ἀείνως (aeínōs) (Aristophanes, Cratinus).^[3][1][2]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek αἰέν (aién, “always”) + νάω (náō, “to flow”), so properly “ever-flowing”.^[2][1][4] Babiniotis takes the first part as an old locative of αἰών (aiṓn, “age, lifetime”) and a by-form of ἀεί (aeí, “always”), and starts from a form with a double ⟨νν⟩, the one Herodotus still writes.^[4][3] The Etymologicum Magnum gives the same analysis: it derives the word from the verb “to flow” and glosses it “always flowing”.^[5] Beekes finds no certain cognate of the verb νάω (náō) outside Greek.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Hesiod's Works and Days (595), of “an ever-flowing spring that runs off and is clear”.^[3][1][4]

Semantic evolution

In archaic and classical poetry and prose it describes running water: rivers in Hesiod and Aeschylus, a lake in Herodotus, clouds in Aristophanes' Clouds, and even fire in Pindar.^[1][3][2] In the Frogs Aristophanes uses the contracted form comically, of an “ever-flowing” stream of mud and dung in the underworld.^[1][3]

From the start it was also figurative: Simonides and Heraclitus use it of everlasting glory, Pindar of the unfailing tables of public hospitality, Euripides of unending power and Xenophon of an inexhaustible supply of food.^[1][3][2] Philosophers used it for what lasts for ever: Plato of being, and later writers of nature and of motion.^[3]

In the Septuagint it renders the “everlasting hills” of Genesis and calls God eternal in Job; the Wisdom of Solomon keeps the literal “ever-flowing spring”.^[7] The First Letter of Clement speaks of the everlasting order of the universe, and Hellenistic and Byzantine papyri and inscriptions call God “eternal”; in legal papyri the phrase “for the everlasting time” means in perpetuity.^[8][3]

Modern Greek keeps it as the learned Modern Greek αέναος (aénaos), “perpetual, unceasing”, as in the perpetual cycle of life.^[9][4]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod calls a spring “ever-flowing” in the Works and Days.^[3][1]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of fire, and Simonides and Heraclitus of everlasting glory.^[1][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus writes the Ionic form ἀένναος (aénnaos) of a lake.^[3][1]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato applies it to being, in the Laws.^[3]
• 2nd century BC – A papyrus uses the phrase “for the everlasting time” for a grant in perpetuity.^[3][8]
• 6th century AD – A papyrus calls God “the eternal Saviour”.^[3]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as the learned αέναος (aénaos), “perpetual”.^[9][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of springs and rivers: ever-flowing, never running dry.^[1][2][3]
2. (figurative) inexhaustible, unfailing, of power, food or hospitality.^[3][2]
3. everlasting, eternal, of glory, life, being or God.^[1][3][8]

Related words

• αἰών (aiṓn)
• ἀεί (aeí)
• νάω (náō)
• νᾶμα (nâma)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ a b c 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
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki