ἀρχαιολογία

Forms

ἀρχαιολογίᾱ (arkhaiologíā) f (genitive ἀρχαιολογίᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos, “ancient”) + -λογία (-logía).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plato's Hippias Major has the earliest example: the Spartans, says Hippias, listen with most pleasure to “all the ancient lore” (πάσης τῆς ἀρχαιολογίας).^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Hellenistic and Roman times it meant ancient history, and historians used it for their accounts of early times: Diodorus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Philo and Plutarch.^[3][4][5] It became a title for works on a people's past: Dionysius' Roman Antiquities, Josephus' Jewish Antiquities, an Attic history by Phanodemus, a Phoenician one by Hieronymus, and works by Cleanthes.^[3][4] Eusebius applied it to the history Moses wrote.^[3] Old Armenian calqued it, and Coptic borrowed it, first in a manuscript of about AD 600.^[1][6]

The modern sense, the science of ancient remains, came through French archéologie: the Modern Greek word αρχαιολογία (archaiología) is a learned word with that French sense.^[7][2] English archaeology, from the French word or directly from Greek, first meant “ancient history” around 1600, and the scientific sense is recorded by 1825.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for ancient lore in the Hippias Major.^[3][4]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus use it for ancient history, Dionysius as the title of his Roman Antiquities.^[3][4]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo and Philo use it for ancient history.^[3][4]
• 1st century AD – Josephus gives it as the title of his Jewish Antiquities.^[3][4]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it at the start of his Theseus.^[3]
• 3rd–4th century AD – Eusebius uses it of the history Moses recorded.^[3]
• About AD 600 – Coptic ⲁⲣⲭⲓⲟⲗⲟⲅⲓⲁ (arkhiologia) is first recorded.^[6]
• About 1600 – English archaeology is first recorded, meaning ancient history.^[8]
• 1825 – The English word is recorded in the sense of the scientific study of past peoples.^[8]
• Modern Greek – αρχαιολογία (archaiología) means the science of ancient remains, after French archéologie.^[7][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Ancient lore, legends of the past.^[4][5][3]
2. Ancient history.^[5][3][4]
3. As the title of a work: Antiquities, a history of a people's early times.^[3][4]

Related words

• English archaeology
• French archéologie

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com