ἀρχεῖον

Forms

ἀρχεῖον (arkheîon) n (genitive ἀρχείου); second declension^[1] Ionic ἀρχήϊον (arkhḗïon).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the neuter of an adjective ἀρχεῖος (arkheîos, “of the magistrates”), made from ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “office, government”) with a suffix that forms nouns of place, and so goes back to ἄρχω (árkhō, “to rule”).^[1][2][4] Debrunner treats it among the nouns of place in -εῖον (-eîon).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the late 5th and the 4th century BC, in Lysias, Isocrates and Xenophon, for the building where the chief magistrates sat: a town hall or government office.^[6][7][3] The Ionic form ἀρχήϊον is a manuscript reading in Herodotus, of the seats of government in the Scythian districts.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Athens the name was given above all to the office where the decrees of the people and other state documents were kept.^[8] From the building it passed to the documents themselves: from the 2nd century BC inscriptions, papyri and Dionysius of Halicarnassus use the plural for public records, an archive.^[2][9] Aristotle uses it of a board of magistrates and, in the plural, of the magistracies, and Plutarch of the headquarters of a Roman camp.^[7][2] The Byzantine lexicon of Zonaras glosses it as the record office where public papers lie, or as the palace.^[10]

The word reached Coptic and, through Late Latin archivum and French, gave English archives (about 1600).^[11][12] Modern Greek αρχείο (archeío) is learned, with the sense of a collection of documents; its uses for archives in general and for a computer file follow French archives and English file.^[13][4]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Lysias, Isocrates and Xenophon use it for the building of the magistrates.^[6][7]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a board of magistrates.^[2][7]
• 2nd century BC – An inscription from Dyme probably uses the plural for public records.^[2]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of the headquarters of a Roman camp.^[7][2]
• About 1600 – English archives is first recorded, through French and Late Latin.^[12]
• Modern Greek – αρχείο (archeío) means an archive or a file.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The building of the magistrates: a town hall, government office; an official residence.^[2][7][3]
2. (plural) Public records, archives.^[2][9]
3. A board of magistrates; in the plural, the magistracies.^[2][7]
4. The headquarters of a Roman camp (Latin principia).^[2][7]

Related words

• ἀρχή (arkhḗ)
• ἄρχω (árkhō)
• English archive

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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ Debrunner, Albert (1917), Griechische Wortbildungslehre, Heidelberg: Winter; Greek tr. on the Portal for the Greek Language, https://www.greek-language.gr
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
11. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki