ἀναισθησία

Forms

ἀναισθησίᾱ (anaisthēsíā) f (genitive ἀναισθησίᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the abstract noun from Ancient Greek ἀναίσθητος (anaísthētos, “without feeling, insensible”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary analyses it as ἀν- (an-, “not”) with αἴσθησις (aísthēsis, “sensation, perception”) and the noun suffix -ία (-ía).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Hippocratic writings and in Plato.^[5][6] In the Hippocratic Coan Prenotions it is a state of stupor or torpor,^[5] and in Plato's Timaeus and Philebus it is the lack of sensation.^[7][5][8]

Semantic evolution

Plato also uses the phrase “with insensibility”, that is, without the help of the senses.^[7][9] The dialogue Axiochus uses it of the unconsciousness of the dead,^[7][5] Aristotle of people who fall unconscious, and in the Nicomachean Ethics of insensibility to pleasure and pain.^[7][5][2] Dioscorides uses it for the insensibility of a patient under surgery.^[7][5]

The orators use it figuratively for obtuseness and stupidity: Isocrates and Demosthenes, who speaks of acting “out of stupidity”.^[5][9][8] In Christian writers it is the lack of spiritual perception, as in Dionysius of Alexandria and John Chrysostom,^[5] but the ascetic writer Evagrius Ponticus uses it in a good sense: he calls blessed the mind that in prayer has gained complete insensibility.^[5]

The word lived on in medieval Greek and in dialects.^[10] Modern Greek took it back as a learned word, αναισθησία (anesthisía), for medical anaesthesia and, figuratively, for callousness.^[11] English anesthesia (1721) comes from it through medical Latin; its use for the prevention of pain in surgery dates from 1846.^[12]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic Coan Prenotions use it for stupor.^[5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for lack of sensation, and Isocrates for senselessness.^[7][5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for insensibility to pleasure and pain and for unconsciousness, and Demosthenes for stupidity.^[7][5]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it for insensibility under surgery.^[7][5]
• 2nd century AD – Aretaeus has the Ionic form in -ίη for stupor.^[5][7]
• 3rd century AD – Dionysius of Alexandria uses it for a lack of spiritual perception.^[5]
• 4th century AD – Evagrius Ponticus praises the insensibility of the mind at prayer.^[5]
• 1721 – English borrows it, through medical Latin, as anesthesia, “loss of feeling”.^[12]
• Modern Greek – The learned αναισθησία (anesthisía) means anaesthesia and callousness.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of sensation or perception, insensibility.^[7][2][5]
2. Insensibility to pleasure or pain.^[7][2]
3. Unconsciousness; stupor.^[5][7][9]
4. (medicine) Insensibility to pain under surgery, anaesthesia.^[7][5]
5. Mental obtuseness, stupidity, senselessness.^[7][2][5]
6. (Christian) Lack of spiritual perception; in ascetic writing, the mind's detachment from the senses in prayer.^[5]

Related words

• ἀναίσθητος (anaísthētos)
• English anesthesia

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ Bailly, Anatole (1901), Abrégé du dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
9. ^ a b c Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com