ἀναχωρέω

Forms

ᾰ̓νᾰχωρέω (anakhōréō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀνα- (ana-, “back”) + χωρέω (khōréō, “to make room, go”), “to go back”.^[1][2][3] The verb χωρέω (khōréō) is made from χῶρος (khôros, “place, space”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for drawing back from danger (Iliad 3.35), for retiring in battle, for hounds giving ground to a boar, and for going back home.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus, Thucydides and Euripides use it above all of armies retreating or withdrawing to a city.^[7][8] Herodotus has it of oxen that walk backwards as they graze and of a kingship that passes back to the rightful heir,^[8][7] and Plato of a disputant who gives way and of the soul withdrawing from the senses.^[8][7] Theophrastus and Polybius use the perfect participle of regions lying inland, away from the coast.^[7]

In Ptolemaic Egypt it was the word for people who fled their villages to escape taxes and duties, or took refuge in a temple in protest.^[9][7] In the New Testament it is to withdraw or take refuge, as into Egypt in Matthew 2:14.^[9] Christian writers of the 4th century used it for withdrawing from the world into the religious life; from it came ἀναχωρητής (anakhōrētḗs), the hermit.^[7]

Coptic borrowed the verb.^[10] Modern Greek has αναχωρώ (anachoró), “to depart, set off”, a learned word from the Hellenistic sense “to go away”.^[11][4]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for drawing back from danger and retiring in battle.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of oxen grazing backwards and of a kingship reverting to an heir.^[8][7]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of armies retreating and going back home.^[7][8]
• 2nd century BC – Papyri from Tebtunis use it of villagers who fled or took refuge in a temple.^[7][9]
• 1st century AD – Matthew uses it of withdrawing to a place of refuge.^[9]
• 4th century AD – Macarius of Egypt and Palladius use it of withdrawing from the world as a hermit.^[7]
• About AD 825 – Fayyumic Coptic has the borrowed form Coptic ⲁⲛⲁⲭⲟⲣⲓ (anakhori).^[10]
• Modern Greek – αναχωρώ (anachoró) means to depart.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go back, retire, withdraw; of armies, to retreat.^[8][6]
2. To move backwards.^[8][7]
3. To go back, return to a place; to return to a point or a way of life.^[8][5]
4. To give way in an argument; to withdraw from negotiations.^[8]
5. Of a right or a punishment, to pass back, revert, recoil on someone.^[8][7]
6. (perfect participle) Lying inland; remote, secluded; of words, out of use.^[7][9]
7. (Koine) To flee one's village, take refuge.^[9][7]
8. (Christian) To withdraw from the world as a hermit.^[7]

Word family

• ἀναχώρησις (anakhṓrēsis)
• ἐπαναχωρέω (epanakhōréō)
• ὑπαναχωρέω (hupanakhōréō)
• ἀναχώρημα (anakhṓrēma)
• ἀναχωρητής (anakhōrētḗs)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ Strong, James (1890), A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament, in The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, New York: Hunt & Eaton
4. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c 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 m n o Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f 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
10. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki