ἀναστροφή

Forms

ᾰ̓νᾰστροφή (anastrophḗ) f (genitive ᾰ̓νᾰστροφῆς); first declension^[1] Thessalian ὀστροφά (ostrophá), in an inscription from Larisa.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀναστρέφω (anastréphō, “to turn back, turn upside down”) + -η (-ē).^[1][3][4] The verb is made of ἀνά (aná, “up, back”) and στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in Aeschylus' Eumenides, where a cave is a haunt of divinities.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the 5th century BC it means a turning: Sophocles uses it for a turning back, Thucydides for ships turning round in battle, and Xenophon for the wheeling of horses and of soldiers who turn to flee or rally.^[6][7] Euripides uses it for an overturning, a reversal of fortune.^[6][7][2] A Hippocratic writer speaks of correcting a treatment.^[2]

Technical writers gave it narrower senses.^[6][2] For Apollonius Dyscolus it is the throwing back of the accent, as in prepositions placed after their noun, and also the inversion of the natural word order; in rhetoric Hermogenes uses it for repeating the last words of one clause at the start of the next; and Euclid uses it for the conversion of a ratio.^[6][2] Latin took it over as the rhetorical term Latin anastrophe,^[9] and English borrowed anastrophe, “inversion of the usual word order”, in the 1570s.^[5]

From Polybius on it also means a way of life, conduct, and the time or leisure for doing something.^[7][6] The sense of conduct is found in inscriptions, in Tobit and the Second Book of Maccabees, and often in the New Testament letters.^[10][11][12] Spicq notes that only the moral nuance of the verb survives in the noun, which became a technical term of New Testament spirituality for the visible behaviour of Christians.^[13] Zonaras glosses it as “way of life, conduct”.^[14] Coptic borrowed it, in manuscripts from about AD 300.^[15]

Modern Greek αναστροφή (anastrofí) is a learned word: it means a reversal of movement, and is used for a handstand in gymnastics, a temperature inversion, the annulment of a legal act and the shift of the accent in grammar, with senses taken from French inversion, rétroversion and revirement.^[16]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus calls a cave a haunt of divinities.^[6][7][2]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for a turning back, Thucydides for ships turning, Euripides for a reversal of fortune.^[6][7][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for the wheeling of horses and soldiers.^[6][2]
• 3rd century BC – Euclid uses it for the conversion of a ratio.^[6][2]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a way of life and for time to do something.^[6][7][2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament letters use it for Christian conduct.^[10][13]
• 2nd century AD – Apollonius Dyscolus uses it for the throwing back of the accent.^[6][2]
• 1570s – English borrows it as anastrophe.^[5]
• Modern Greek – The learned αναστροφή (anastrofí) means a reversal or inversion.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An overturning, upheaval; a reversal of fortune; disorder.^[6][7][2]
2. A turning back, return; a wheeling round of horses, soldiers or ships.^[6][7]
3. (grammar) The throwing back of the accent, anastrophe; the inversion of the natural word order.^[6][2]
4. (rhetoric) The repetition of the closing words of one clause at the start of the next.^[6]
5. (mathematics) The conversion of a ratio.^[6]
6. A dwelling in a place; a haunt, abode.^[6][7]
7. A way of life, conduct, behaviour.^[6][10][7]
8. Time or opportunity for something, leisure.^[7]

Related words

• ἀναστρέφω (anastréphō)
• στρέφω (stréphō)
• στροφή (strophḗ)
• Latin anastrophe
• English anastrophe

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b c 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
11. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
13. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
14. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
15. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
16. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki