ἀπόλογος

Forms

ἀπόλογος (apólogos) m (genitive ἀπολόγου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀπο- (apo-) + λόγος (lógos, “word, speech”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plato's Republic has it in the phrase Ἀλκίνου ἀπόλογος, “a tale told to Alcinous”, after the long story of his wanderings that Odysseus tells the Phaeacian king in the Odyssey; the phrase was used of long and tedious stories.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle uses the same phrase in the Rhetoric and the Poetics, and Plutarch speaks of Odysseus' tale of his wanderings.^[4][5] The CGL notes that the word may imply that a narrative is tedious or untrue.^[2] From a story it came to mean a fable or allegory, such as Aesop's, in Cicero, Quintilian and Gellius.^[4][5][6] It was borrowed as Latin apologus.^[7][1]

Inscriptions and papyri of the 3rd century BC use it for an account rendered or a list, and at Thasos and Halae it was the title of an official who audited the accounts of magistrates leaving office.^[5][4][3] Medieval vernacular Greek had απόλογος (apólogos) or απίλογος (apílogos) in the senses “defence, excuse, account” and “answer”, and the word still lives in dialects.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the phrase “a tale told to Alcinous” for a long story.^[4][5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the same phrase in the Rhetoric and the Poetics.^[4][5]
• 3rd century BC – Inscriptions from Thera and a papyrus use it for an account or a list, and inscriptions from Thasos and Halae for an auditing official.^[5][4]
• 1st century BC – Cicero uses it of a fable or apologue.^[4][6]
• 1st century AD – Quintilian uses it of a fable.^[4][5]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of Odysseus' tale of his wanderings.^[5]
• 2nd century AD – Gellius uses it of Aesop's fables.^[5][6]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular απίλογος (apílogos) means a defence, an account or an answer.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A story, a long narrative; Ἀλκίνου ἀπόλογος, of long and tedious stories.^[4][2][5]
2. A fable, apologue, allegory.^[4][5][6]
3. An account rendered; a list.^[4][5]
4. (Thasos, Halae) An official who audited outgoing magistrates, the same as a λογιστής (logistḗs).^[4][5]

Related words

• ἀπολογία (apología)
• Latin apologus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (1901), Abrégé du dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ 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
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 Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr