ἀναρχία

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.nar.kʰí.aː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /a.narˈçi.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /a.narˈçi.a/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓νᾰρχῐ́ᾱ (anarkhíā) f (genitive ᾰ̓νᾰρχῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ἄναρχος (ánarkhos, “without a leader”) with the abstract suffix -ία (-íā).^[1][2][3] Ἄναρχος is formed from the privative prefix and ἀρχός (arkhós, “leader”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aeschylus uses it both for the lack of a leader, in the Suppliants, and for disorder: the Agamemnon speaks of “anarchy shouted by the people”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus uses it for an army without a commander, and Thucydides for the indiscipline of troops.^[5][2] In political thought it was lawlessness and disorder: Plato links it with lawlessness and opposes it to freedom, and Aristotle with disorder, and with the licence of slaves and women.^[5][4] At Athens it was the name of a year without an archon, as Xenophon and Aristotle record.^[2][4] Etymonline notes its use for the year of the Thirty Tyrants.^[2][4][3] Epictetus uses it for not holding office, and Galen for a disorder of the body.^[4][5]

Gregory of Nazianzus names “anarchy, polyarchy and monarchy” as the three opinions about God, here meaning the denial of a first principle.^[4] English took anarchy from French or Medieval Latin in the 1530s.^[3] Modern Greek αναρχία (anarchía) is disorder and, rarely, anarchism.^[6]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for lack of leadership and for disorder.^[4][5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for an army without a commander.^[5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon records an Athenian year without an archon.^[2][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle discusses it as political disorder.^[5][4]
• 4th century AD – Gregory of Nazianzus uses it in theology.^[4]
• 1530s – English borrows anarchy.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lack of a leader or commander.^[2][5]
2. Lawlessness, disorder, anarchy; indiscipline.^[2][5]
3. (Athens) A year without an archon.^[2][5]
4. The state of not holding office.^[5][4]
5. (medicine) A disorder of the body.^[4]
6. (theology) The denial of a first principle.^[4]

Related words

• ἄναρχος (ánarkhos)
• ἀρχός (arkhós)
• ἀρχή (arkhḗ)
• English anarchy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki