Etymologically
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ἀνήρ

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /aː.nɛ̌ːr/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /aˈnir/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /aˈnir/[1]

Forms

ᾱ̆̓νήρ (ānḗr) m (genitive ᾰ̓νδρός or ᾱ̓νέρος); third declension[1] Epic genitive ἀνέρος, accusative ἀνέρα, the older forms;[2] Attic ἀνδρός, ἄνδρα are analogical.[2][3] Mycenaean derivatives and names such as Mycenaean Greek a-ta-no (Antanor).[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *anḗr, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂nḗr (“man”);[1][2] the initial ἀ- reflects the laryngeal.[2] Cognate with Sanskrit नृ (nṛ́), Oscan nerum (“of men”), the name Latin Nerō, Middle Welsh ner (“chief”) and Albanian njerí (“person”).[2][1] LSJ derives the stem ⟨ἀνδρ-⟩ from the zero grade.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets have derivatives such as the word for a statue and names in -ānōr.[2] In Homer it means a man as opposed to a woman, often a warrior or a leader, but also a free man of the people.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

LSJ contrasts it with ἄνθρωπος (ánthrōpos), “human being” as opposed to beast: ἀνήρ is the male, and in Homer it already means a husband too.[3][4] It could stress manly worth, “a real man” as opposed to a coward, and in the plural it named the citizen body: Attic orators addressed juries and assemblies as “men of Athens”.[4] Set beside a noun or an ethnic name it meant little more than “a person”.[4]

In the New Testament it means an adult male, and especially a husband, as often in the Gospels and the Epistles.[5] Medieval Greek built άντρας (ántras) from the accusative ἄνδρα (ándra), the source of Modern Greek άντρας (ántras), which also has a learned form άνδρας.[6]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – Derivatives and names from the word appear on Linear B tablets.[2]
  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for men, warriors and husbands.[3][4]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use the plural for a population of citizens.[4][7]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for men and husbands.[5]
  • Middle Ages – Medieval Greek forms άντρας (ántras) from the accusative.[6]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as Modern Greek άντρας (ántras).[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A man, an adult male, as opposed to a woman, a child or a slave; often a warrior.[3][4]
  2. (plural) The men of a city, its citizens; jurymen.[4]
  3. A husband; a lover.[3][4]
  4. A real man, as opposed to a coward.[4]
  5. A mortal man, as opposed to a god.[4]
  6. A person, with a noun or an ethnic name.[4]

Word family

  • ἀγήνωρ (agḗnōr)
  • ἀνανδρία (anandríā)
  • ἄνανδρος (ánandros)
  • ἀνδραγαθίζομαι (andragathízomai)
  • ἀνδρεία (andreíā)
  • ἀνδρεῖος (andreîos)
  • ἀνδρία (andría)
  • ἀνδριάς (andriā́s)
  • ἀνδρίον (andríon)
  • ἀνδρόγυνος (andrógunos)
  • ἀνδρόμεος (andrómeos)
  • ἀνδρόσφιγξ (andrósphinx)

Usage notes

In Attic the article often merged with the noun, as ἁνήρ (hanḗr) for ὁ ἀνήρ.[3] Ancient writers derived it from ἀνύω (anúō, “to accomplish”), because the man was held to be more active than the woman, or from ἄνω (ánō, “upwards”).[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b 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
  6. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  7. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  8. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram