ἀποθήκη

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.po.tʰɛ̌ː.kɛː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /a.poˈθi.ci/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /a.poˈθi.ci/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓ποθήκη (apothḗkē) f (genitive ᾰ̓ποθήκης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ἀποτίθημι (apotíthēmi, “to put away, store”), formed from ἀπο- (apo-, “away”) and τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”).^[1][2][3] Τίθημι is from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it in an abstract sense: to “make a store” of favour with the Persian king.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Thucydides uses it for a storehouse for equipment and funds, and later writers for any place where things are put away: Lucian has a store of books and a burial place for bodies, and the historian Philistus a refuge.^[5][6] In the Septuagint it is a storeroom or a store, and in the Gospels the barn into which the wheat is gathered.^[7][3]

Latin borrowed it as apothēca (“storehouse”), the source of German Apotheke “pharmacy” and Russian аптека.^[1] Modern Greek αποθήκη (apothíki) is a warehouse, a storeroom, and a shop selling stock.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a store of goodwill.^[5][2]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for a storehouse.^[5][2]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for storerooms.^[7]
• 1st century AD – The Gospels use it for a barn.^[3]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses it for a library and a burial place.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A storehouse, magazine, repository.^[5][2]
2. A barn for grain.^[2][3]
3. A store, something laid by.^[5][2]
4. A refuge.^[5]

Related words

• ἀποτίθημι (apotíthēmi)
• θήκη (thḗkē)
• Latin apotheca
• English apothecary

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki