Etymologically
Log in

ἀλληγορία

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /al.lɛː.ɡo.rí.aː/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /al.li.ɣoˈri.a/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /al.li.ɣoˈri.a/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓λληγορῐ́ᾱ (allēgoríā) f (genitive ᾰ̓λληγορῐ́ᾱς); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἄλλος (állos, “other”) + ἀγορεύω (agoreúō, “to speak in public”): “speaking otherwise”, saying one thing and meaning another.[1][2] Hesychius defines it as language “that points to something other than what is heard”.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest examples are in the 1st century BC: Cicero, writing in Greek in a letter, says he will tell of political matters “in allegories”, and Philodemus pairs allegories with metaphors.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The treatise On Style ascribed to Demetrius describes allegory as a veil over speech, used in the mysteries and like darkness and night, and impressive above all in threats, as when Dionysius said that “the cicadas will sing to them from the ground”, meaning that their land would be laid waste.[3] Rhetoric defined it as a continuous series of metaphors, as Cicero and Quintilian explain.[3][4]

Plutarch uses it for the allegorical interpretation of myths and for the riddles of prophecy, and Longinus speaks of interpreting a passage “by way of allegory”.[4][3] Latin took it as allegoria.[3] Modern Greek αλληγορία (alligoría) is a learned word for an allegory in words or art, and colloquially for vague, roundabout talk.[5]

Timeline

  • 1st century BC – Cicero and Philodemus use it for veiled and figurative language.[3][4]
  • 1st century BC (perhaps) – Demetrius' On Style discusses it as a figure.[3]
  • 1st century AD – Quintilian defines Latin allegoria.[3][4]
  • 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for the allegorical reading of myths.[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Veiled language; a word or passage with a hidden or double meaning; allegory.[3][4]
  2. (rhetoric) A continuous series of metaphors; figurative language.[3][4]
  3. Allegorical interpretation of myths.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki