ἀντίδοτος

Forms

ᾰ̓ντῐ́δοτος (antídotos) m or f (neuter ᾰ̓ντῐ́δοτον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a verbal adjective from Ancient Greek ἀντιδίδωμι (antidídōmi, “to give in return, give instead”) + -τος (-tos), meaning “given in place of” or “given against”.^[1][2][3] The verb is made of ἀντί (antí, “against, instead of”) and δίδωμι (dídōmi, “to give”).^[3][4]

Used as a feminine noun, it is short for a phrase with δόσις (dósis, “dose”) understood, a remedy “given against” a poison or illness.^[2][5] Etymonline explains it instead as short for a phrase with φάρμακον (phármakon, “drug”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest text with the word in the GLAUx corpus is Strabo's Geography, which has the plural.^[6] In the 1st century AD Dioscorides' De materia medica uses it for a remedy against poison.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective it meant “given in place of”, with a genitive: an epigram by Palladas speaks of something given in place of fire,^[2][7] and another epigram calls a thing a “remedy of ills”.^[2][7] Nonnus also uses it for “given in return”.^[7]

As a noun it is the medical antidote, from Strato's epigrams and Plutarch on; the gender is often uncertain, but it is feminine in Strato.^[2][7] Galen asks what an antidote is and says that a drug is called by that name.^[7] LSJ records a diminutive, ἀντιδότιον (antidótion), in Archigenes.^[2]

Christian writers used it in a figurative sense: Ignatius of Antioch calls the bread of the Eucharist “an antidote against dying”,^[4] and Clement of Alexandria pictures the Word as a physician who brings the sick every antidote of salvation.^[7]

Latin borrowed the word as Latin antidotum or antidotus, and through Old French and Latin it gave the English word antidote in the early 15th century.^[3] Modern Greek αντίδοτο (antídoto) is a learned form of Hellenistic ἀντίδοτον; it means an antidote and, figuratively, anything that counters something unpleasant.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo has it in the earliest text of the GLAUx corpus.^[6][7]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it for a remedy against poison.^[4][6][7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it as a noun, an antidote.^[2][4][7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Ignatius of Antioch calls the Eucharist an antidote against death.^[4][7]
• 2nd century AD – Galen discusses what an antidote is.^[7]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Clement of Alexandria speaks of the antidotes of salvation.^[7]
• 4th–5th century AD – Palladas uses the adjective for something given in place of fire.^[2][7]
• Early 15th century – English borrows it, through Latin and Old French, as antidote.^[3]
• Modern Greek – The learned αντίδοτο (antídoto) means an antidote, literal or figurative.^[8][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Given in place of something (with a genitive).^[2][7]
2. Given as a remedy for something (with a genitive).^[2][7]
3. Given in return.^[7]

Noun

1. An antidote, a remedy against poison or disease.^[2][4][7]
2. (figurative, Christian) A remedy, as in “an antidote against dying”.^[4][7]

Word family

• ἀντιδότιον (antidótion)

Related words

• ἀντιδίδωμι (antidídōmi)
• δίδωμι (dídōmi)
• δόσις (dósis)
• Latin antidotum
• English antidote

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon 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 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
5. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
6. ^ a b c d 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 o p q r Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας