ἀμνηστία

Forms

ᾰ̓μνηστῐ́ᾱ (amnēstíā) f (genitive ᾰ̓μνηστῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἄμνηστος (ámnēstos, “forgotten; forgetful”) + -ία (-ía), an abstract noun.^[1][2] The adjective is made with the privative prefix ἀ- (a-) from the stem of μιμνῄσκω (mimnḗiskō, “to remind”), whose middle μνάομαι (mnáomai) means “to remember”.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in Plato's Menexenus, where things are said to lie in oblivion.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The original sense is forgetfulness, and with a genitive the forgetting of something: the Wisdom of Solomon speaks of forgetting favours and of forgetting what had happened.^[3][4][6] Cornutus uses it for the speaker's deliberate silence about what harms him, and Plutarch for ignoring certain people.^[4][6]

The legal sense, an official forgetting of past wrongs, appears in Hellenistic inscriptions: a treaty of Miletus of about 180 BC grants amnesty to both sides for all earlier charges.^[4][7] Plutarch calls the Athenian reconciliation decree of 403 BC “the decree of the amnesty”, though Aristotle and the orators of the time express the same idea with the verb μνησικακέω (mnēsikakéō), “not to bear a grudge”.^[7] Strabo, Josephus, Appian and Herodian use the word for amnesties after wars and civil strife, and in Philo and Clement of Alexandria it becomes pardon.^[4][3]

It passed into Latin amnestia, the source of French amnistie and of English amnesty (1570s).^[8] The medieval vernacular kept the word, and Modern Greek αμνηστία (amnistía) is a learned word in the Hellenistic legal sense.^[9][10][2]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it in the Menexenus for oblivion.^[3][4]
• 2nd century BC – A treaty of Miletus grants an amnesty for the earlier charges on both sides.^[4][3][7]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo uses it for an amnesty and Philo for pardon.^[4][3]
• 1st century AD – Cornutus uses it for deliberately passing over what harms one.^[4][3]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch calls the Athenian decree of 403 BC the decree of the amnesty.^[7][4]
• 1570s – English borrows it as amnesty, through French and Latin.^[8]
• Modern Greek – αμνηστία (amnistía) is a learned word for a legal amnesty.^[10][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Forgetfulness, oblivion; with a genitive, the forgetting of something.^[3][6][4]
2. Deliberately passing something over; ignoring certain people.^[6][3][4]
3. An amnesty: the pardon of past offences, granted by law or treaty.^[3][6][4]
4. Pardon in general.^[4]

Related words

• ἄμνηστος (ámnēstos)
• μιμνῄσκω (mimnḗiskō)
• μνησικακέω (mnēsikakéō)
• Latin amnestia
• English amnesty

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c d Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki