ἀνώνυμος

Forms

ἀνώνῠμος (anṓnumos) m or f (neuter ἀνώνῠμον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-) + ὄνυμα (ónuma), from the privative prefix and the Aeolic and Doric form of ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”).^[2][3][1] The first vowel of the noun is lengthened at the junction of the compound, as in ἐπώνυμος (epṓnumos) and συνώνυμος (sunṓnumos).^[4] Beekes counts it as more recent than the epic νώνυμος (nṓnumos, “nameless”), which is already in Homer.^[5]

The noun for “name” is inherited from Indo-European^[5]; Beekes derives the Greek forms from the zero grade *h₃nh₃-mn-, and compares Old Armenian անուն (anun) and Phrygian ονομαν (onoman).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey Alcinous asks the stranger at his court for his name, saying that no man is altogether nameless, since parents name every child at birth.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Lyric and tragedy used it for the obscure and inglorious: Pindar speaks of a nameless old age spent without glory, and Euripides' Aphrodite says she is “not nameless” among mortals.^[7][6][3] It also meant “not to be named”: Ibycus uses it of the day of Troy's capture, and Euripides of the Furies, whose name was avoided.^[6][3] Herodotus says that Europe once had no name, and an oracle in his history calls Oath's child nameless.^[3][6]

Philosophers used it for things the language has no word for: Parmenides' path that is “unthinkable and nameless”, Plato's unnamed kinds, and Aristotle's states and vices for which no name exists.^[6][3] In the orators it meant “anonymous”, of a denunciation in Lysias, and a family line left “nameless” was one that had died out.^[3][6] The Wisdom of Solomon speaks of the worship of nameless idols.^[6][8]

Medieval vernacular Greek used the masculine as a noun for an ordinary man.^[9] Late Latin borrowed the word as Latin anonymus, the source of English anonymous.^[10][11] Modern Greek ανώνυμος (anónymos) is a learned word meaning “anonymous”, and after French anonyme it is also used of a joint-stock company.^[11][4]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of a man without a name.^[2][3][12]
• 6th century BC – Ibycus calls the day of Troy's capture “unspeakable”.^[6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar speaks of a nameless, inglorious old age, and Parmenides of a path that cannot be thought or named.^[7][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus says that Europe once had no name, and Euripides calls the Furies goddesses not to be named.^[3][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Lysias uses it of an anonymous denunciation.^[3][6]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of qualities for which the language has no name.^[3][6]
• About 1600 – English adopts anonymous through Late Latin anonymus.^[10]
• Modern Greek – ανώνυμος (anónymos) is a learned word meaning “anonymous”.^[11][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Nameless, having no name.^[3][6][2]
2. Having no word for it in the language, unnamed: of kinds, concepts and qualities.^[6][3]
3. Anonymous, of unknown or unstated authorship.^[3][6]
4. Without fame, inglorious, obscure; of a family, extinct.^[3][6][7]
5. Not to be named, unspeakable; ill-omened, accursed.^[6][3]

Word family

• ἀνωνυμία (anōnumía)

Related words

• ὄνομα (ónoma)
• νώνυμος (nṓnumos)
• Latin anonymus
• English anonymous

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux