ἀρραβών

Forms

ἀρρᾰβών (arrhabṓn) m (genitive ἀρρᾰβῶνος); third declension^[1] Often written ἀραβών in papyri and New Testament manuscripts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Biblical Hebrew עֵרָבוֹן (ʿērāḇōn, “pledge”) or a related Semitic form, which Rosół counts among the accepted Semitic loanwords.^[4][5][1] The Semitic family includes Akkadian erubbātu (“pledge”) and Aramaic, Syriac and Arabic words for a surety or down payment.^[4][5] LSJ thought the Greek word came probably through Phoenician.^[2] The Septuagint translates the Hebrew word in Genesis with ἀρραβών.^[5][3]

Beekes is less sure, holding that the word may come from elsewhere, and Babiniotis also calls the Semitic origin disputed.^[6][7] According to Rosół, Egyptian ꜣrb (“pledge”) is itself a Semitic loan.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cratinus, then in Isaeus, as the earnest money a buyer deposits and loses if the purchase is not completed.^[5][2][8]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle uses it of deposits paid in advance, and Antiphanes and Menander use it generally of a pledge or guarantee.^[2][8] In the Septuagint it is a pledge in Genesis, and the Epistle to the Ephesians calls the Spirit the pledge of the inheritance.^[2][3][7] Plutarch uses it of an advance payment, a bribe.^[2][8]

It was borrowed as Latin arrabo and arrha.^[3][9] In Hellenistic and medieval Greek it came to mean a betrothal, the guarantee that a marriage would follow.^[7][10] The Modern Greek αρραβώνας (arravónas) means an engagement to marry and the engagement ring.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Cratinus uses it for earnest money.^[5][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Isaeus uses it in a legal speech.^[2][8][12]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle and Antiphanes use it for a deposit and a pledge.^[2][8][12]
• 3rd century BC – The Septuagint uses it for the Hebrew pledge in Genesis.^[5][2]
• 1st century AD – Paul uses it of the Spirit as a pledge.^[3]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek αρραβώνας (arravónas) means an engagement to marry.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Earnest money, a deposit paid by a buyer and lost if the purchase fails.^[2][8][3]
2. Generally, a pledge, guarantee, first installment.^[2][3]
3. An advance payment as a bribe.^[2][8]

Word family

• ἀρραβωνίζω (arrabōnízō)

Related words

• Latin arrabo
• Latin arrha

Usage notes

Hesychius records an unrelated ἀρραβών glossed as ‘fish-hook’, whose origin is unknown.^[6][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
5. ^ a b c d e f Rosół, Rafał, ed., Lexicon of Oriental Words in Ancient Greek, https://orientalwordsingreek.org
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. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
10. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)