ἀποστροφή

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.pos.tro.pʰɛ̌ː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /a.pos.troˈɸi/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /a.pos.troˈfi/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓ποστροφή (apostrophḗ) f (genitive ᾰ̓ποστροφῆς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō, “to turn away”) with the suffix -ή (-ḗ).^[1][2] The verb is formed from ἀπο- (apo-, “away”) and στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound there is “no escape” from a fate.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a turning away, and so an escape, a way out, a refuge, and a resort or recourse: Herodotus says a people had no other “resort” for water.^[3][5][4] Xenophon and Plutarch use it for a turn or change of direction, as of a horse or a river.^[5][4]

In rhetoric it was the figure called apostrophe, in which the speaker turns away from the audience to address one person, as Philodemus, Quintilian and Longinus describe; grammarians used it for elision.^[3] Later it meant aversion, as to food in the medical writers.^[3][4] The Septuagint uses it for turning back, return, and faithlessness.^[6]

French apostrophe comes from it.^[1] Modern Greek αποστροφή (apostrofí) is disgust or aversion, a sense modelled on French aversion, and the rhetorical figure.^[7]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for escape from a fate.^[3][4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for a resort or refuge.^[3][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for a horse's turn.^[5]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus uses it for the rhetorical apostrophe.^[3]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it for aversion to food.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A turning back or aside; a bend, as of a river.^[3][5]
2. A way out, escape from something.^[5][3]
3. A resort, recourse; a refuge.^[5][3]
4. (rhetoric) apostrophe, turning to address one person.^[3]
5. aversion.^[3][4]
6. (Septuagint) A return; faithlessness.^[6]

Related words

• ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō)
• στρέφω (stréphō)
• ἀπόστροφος (apóstrophos)
• English apostrophe

References

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