ἀποθνῄσκω

Forms

ᾰ̓ποθνῄσκω (apothnēískō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀπο- (apo-) + θνῄσκω (thnēískō, “to die”).^[1][2] BDAG calls it an intensive form of the simple verb.^[3] The simple verb has the inchoative suffix -σκω (-skō), and Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *dʰn̥h₂-sḱéti.^[1] Beekes reconstructs the stem of θάνατος (thánatos, “death”) as *dʰnh₂-; the LIV puts it under a root *dʰenh₂- (“to set oneself in motion, run off”), with Vedic and Tocharian verbs meaning “to flow”, which Beekes finds possible but not wholly convincing, and he calls the older comparison with a Sanskrit aorist “disappeared” uncertain.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has the perfect participle, “being dead” (Il. 22.432), and the Odyssey the present, of dying “around a sword” (Od. 11.424), and the perfect, of slaughtered cattle that “were already dead” (Od. 12.393).^[5][6][2]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose it became the ordinary verb for “to die”, with the cause in the dative or after a preposition: of wounds, hunger or disease, in Herodotus, Thucydides and the Hippocratic writers.^[5][6] It also served as the passive of ἀποκτείνω (apokteínō) “to kill”: “to be killed” in battle or by a murderer, and in Attic law “to be put to death”.^[5][6] Aristophanes used it in jest of dying of laughter and of charcoal embers going out.^[6][5]

In the Septuagint it is used of dying for one's brothers or for God, and in the New Testament of a grain of wheat, of dying for the Lord, and with the dative of dying to something, that is renouncing it.^[5][6][3] Medieval vernacular Greek kept the verb, and Modern Greek has it as the learned αποθνήσκω (apothnísko) beside the everyday word for “to die”.^[7][8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the perfect participle for “dead”.^[5]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of a woman who died by a thunderbolt.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it of being killed in battle and of being put to death.^[6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of dying of laughter.^[6][5]
• 1st century AD – The Letter to the Romans speaks of dying “to the Lord” (14.8).^[5][3]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek still uses the verb.^[7]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned αποθνήσκω (apothnísko).^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To die.^[9][6][5]
2. To be killed, especially in battle; as the passive of ἀποκτείνω.^[5][6]
3. To be put to death, executed.^[6]
4. (present and perfect) To be dead.^[6][5]
5. (hyperbolic) To die of laughter.^[6][5]
6. (figurative) Of embers, to go out.^[6]
7. (New Testament) With the dative, to die to something, renounce it.^[5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
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 i j k l m n Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press