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ἄθεος

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Etymology and origin of the Ancient Greek word ἄθεος

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
500–400 BC Pindar, Pythian Odes More words from the 5th century BC
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek ἀ-,θεός
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek θεός (theós)
Ancient Greek ἄθεος (átheos)
From the same root
Ancient Greek ἔνθεος (éntheos) ← θεός
Ancient Greek θεολόγος (theológos) ← θεός
English theism ← θεός
English theosophy ← θεός

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /á.tʰe.os/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈa.θe.os/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈa.θe.os/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓́θεος (átheos) m or f (neuter ᾰ̓́θεον); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not, without”) + θεός (theós, “god”), “without a god”.[1][2][3] The privative prefix goes back to Proto-Indo-European *n̥-.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is in Pindar's fourth Pythian ode, where the weapons of a stepmother are called “godless”, that is, impious and abominable.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy the word describes people with no regard for the gods, such as Orestes in Aeschylus' Eumenides and Deianira in Sophocles' Trachiniae, and also people abandoned by the gods, while Bacchylides uses it of madness sent on such a person.[6][2][4] With Plato it takes on the sense of not believing in the gods at all: in the Apology Socrates denies that he is an atheist.[6][4] The charge was made against philosophers and sophists such as Diagoras of Melos, Protagoras and Epicurus, and Plato's Theaetetus contrasts a godless pattern of life with a divine one.[6][4][2] Clearchus used it of personal names not derived from the name of a god.[4]

Jewish and Christian writers turned the word against polytheists, and pagans in turn called Christians átheoi: the Martyrdom of Polycarp reports the crowd crying “away with the atheists”.[6][7] In the Letter to the Ephesians the Gentiles are said to have been “without God in the world”, a use without blame.[7][8] Through French athéiste the word gave English atheist.[9] It survives in Modern Greek άθεος (átheos), someone who does not believe that God exists.[10]

Timeline

  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar calls a stepmother's weapons “godless”.[2][4][6]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it both of impious people and of someone abandoned by the gods.[4][2][6]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato's Socrates denies that he is átheos, one who does not believe in gods.[6][4]
  • 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Philo applies it to polytheists and to the Egyptians.[6]
  • 2nd century AD – Lucian, like the Martyrdom of Polycarp, records it as a charge against Christians.[6]
  • 1570s – English takes the word, through French, as atheist.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having no regard for the gods; ungodly, impious.[2][4][6]
  2. Denying or not recognising the gods, especially those of the state; atheistic.[4][2][6]
  3. Godforsaken, abandoned by the gods.[2][4]
  4. Without the divine; of a pattern of life, godless as opposed to divine.[2][4]
  5. (Jewish and Christian writers) Of pagans and polytheists; as a charge against Christians and heretics.[6][7]
  6. (New Testament) Without a relationship to God.[7][8]
  7. Of names: not derived from the name of a god.[4]

Word family

  • ἀθεότης (atheótēs)
  • ἀθεΐα (atheḯā)

Usage notes

LSJ and the DGE record a second, rare átheos meaning “without vision” or “unseen”: Plotinus has it in a passage whose reading is doubtful, which the DGE takes as an intended pun on the common word, and a scholion on Oppian uses it for “unseen”.[4][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  3. ^ Strong, James (1890), A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament, in The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, New York: Hunt & Eaton
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c d 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 United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Cite this entry

“Ἄθεος.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/grc/%E1%BC%84%CE%B8%CE%B5%CE%BF%CF%82. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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