ἀρνέομαι

Forms

ἀρνέομαι (arnéomai) ^[1] Ionic participle ἀρνεύμενος in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes.^[2][3] Cretan optative ἀννίοιτο at Gortyn (5th century BC).^[2]

Etymology

The origin is not certain.^[4][5] Beekes, following Mayrhofer, takes it as inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂res- (“to refuse, deny”), with a nasal present *h₂r-n-es- built in Greek, and compares Avestan rah- (“to be disloyal, unfaithful”); he finds that this fits both the form and the meaning very well.^[6] The LIV sets up the same root, “to refuse oneself”.^[7] Wiktionary adds Albanian rrej (“to lie, deceive”), but notes that the Iranian forms are themselves uncertain.^[1]

The older comparison, made by Bugge and taken up by Meillet, is with Old Armenian ուրանամ (uranam, “to deny”).^[5][4] Chantraine thought it the most likely, Frisk left the word unexplained, and Beekes holds that the Armenian verb is unrelated.^[5][4][6] Meillet also linked ἀρά (ará) and Latin ōrō, supposing that the verb first meant uttering a solemn formula.^[5]

Ancient grammarians derived it from αἴρω (aírō, “to raise”), since one raises the hand in refusal.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to refuse or decline something offered or asked, such as a request or a hateful marriage.^[2][3] The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of refusing a word or a request.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

From the sense “refuse” the verb passed to “deny” a claim, a charge or a statement, its usual sense in Herodotus, tragedy and the Attic orators.^[10][3] Chantraine notes that it differs from φημί (phēmí) with a negative in being more emotional and often meaning “refuse”.^[10][5] Homer has the middle aorist ἠρνησάμην, but Attic prefers the passive aorist ἠρνήθην.^[3][10] It formed the action noun ἄρνησις (árnēsis), “denial”, later a grammarians' term for negation, and the adjective ἀρνητικός (arnētikós), “negative”.^[5][4]

In the Koine the middle aorist came back into favour.^[11] In the New Testament it means to refuse, to deny a fact, and to disown or renounce a person, above all Christ, and so to apostatize.^[12][13][11] It survives as Modern Greek αρνούμαι (arnoúmai) (also αρνιέμαι), “to refuse; to deny”, a learned continuation of the ancient verb with a medieval form beside it.^[14][15]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for refusing a request.^[3][9]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Works and Days.^[9][12][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for denying a charge.^[10][3][2]
• 5th century BC – A Cretan law from Gortyn has the form ἀννίοιτο.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for disowning Christ.^[12][13]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek αρνούμαι (arnoúmai) means to refuse and to deny.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To refuse or decline something asked or offered.^[10][3][2]
2. To deny a claim, a charge or a statement; to say no.^[10][3]
3. To disown or renounce a person.^[3][12]
4. (New Testament) To deny Christ or the faith; to apostatize.^[12][13]

Word family

• ἄρνησις (árnēsis)
• ἀρνητικός (arnētikós)
• ἀπαρνέομαι (aparnéomai)
• ἐξαρνέομαι (exarnéomai)
• ἔξαρνος (éxarnos)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ a b 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
7. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
8. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
9. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
12. ^ a b c d e 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
13. ^ a b c United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας