ἁγνός

Forms

ᾰ̔γνός (hagnós) m (feminine ᾰ̔γνή, neuter ᾰ̔γνόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *hagnós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yáǵ-nós, from the root *h₁yaǵ- (“to worship, sacrifice”).^[1][2] It is related to ἅγιος (hágios, “holy”) and ἅζομαι (házomai, “to stand in awe of”), and Beekes and Chantraine note that it may be the same formation as Sanskrit यज्ञ (yajñá, “sacrifice”), from the verb यजति (yájati, “honours with sacrifice”).^[2][3][4]

Meillet instead compared this family with Latin sacer (“holy”), but Chantraine keeps the traditional connection with Sanskrit.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it is an epithet of the goddess Artemis, “holy, pure”, and of a festival of Apollo.^[5][4][6]

Semantic evolution

In its oldest uses it belonged to the gods and to what was theirs: goddesses, groves, shrines, sacrifices, festivals, sacred waters and light.^[4][5][7] Applied to people, it meant ritually pure: free from pollution or from blood-guilt in Sophocles and Euripides, and chaste, free from sexual contact, in Euripides and Menander.^[4][5] Plato uses it of bloodless offerings.^[4]

Hellenistic and Christian Greek moved it towards a moral sense: Clement of Alexandria calls pure the person who is conscious of no wrong, and the New Testament uses it of innocent, chaste and upright people.^[7] It survives as Modern Greek αγνός (agnós).^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of Artemis and of a festival of Apollo.^[5][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Works and Days.^[6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Xenophanes uses it of the smell of frankincense, and Pindar of sacred precincts, water and fire.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it of people free from blood-guilt or sexual impurity.^[4][5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it in a moral sense, of pure and chaste people.^[7]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Clement of Alexandria defines the pure person as one conscious of no wrong.^[7]
• Modern Greek – It survives as Modern Greek αγνός (agnós).^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of gods, especially goddesses: holy, deserving reverence.^[4][5]
2. Of places, rites and things belonging to the gods: sacred, hallowed; of waters and light, pure.^[4][5]
3. Of people: ritually pure, free from pollution or blood-guilt.^[4][5]
4. chaste, free from sexual contact.^[4][7]
5. (Koine) Morally pure, innocent, upright.^[7]

Related words

• ἅγιος (hágios)
• ἁγνεία (hagneíā)
• Ἁγνή (Hagnḗ)
• ἁγνίζω (hagnízō)
• ἅγνισμα (hágnisma)
• ἁγνισμός (hagnismós)
• ἁγνότης (hagnótēs)
• ἅζομαι (házomai)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f 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
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki