ἄλογος

Forms

ἄλογος (álogos) m or f (neuter ἄλογον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-, “not, without”) + λόγος (lógos, “word, speech; reason”), “without speech or reason”, and so both “speechless” and “unreasoning”.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first texts that have it are the fragments of the 5th-century BC philosophers: Democritus uses τὰ ἄλογα for brute animals, and the Pythagorean Philolaus speaks of the irrational nature of the unlimited.^[2][4][5] In Thucydides it means unreasonable, or unsuited to its purpose.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective took its senses from both meanings of λόγος (lógos).^[2][3] As “wordless” it meant speechless (Plato), and the adverb meant “without a word” (Sophocles); Sophocles also used it for what cannot be uttered, and the Septuagint for a man who lacks eloquence.^[2][3] As “without reason” it described unreasoning pleasures and crowds and, above all, animals, the “irrational” creatures (τὰ ἄλογα) of Democritus, Plato and Xenophon.^[2][3] It also meant contrary to reason, absurd or unaccountable (Thucydides, Plato, the orators), and in Thucydides “not reckoned on, unexpected”.^[2][3]

In mathematics, from the Pythagoreans on, it meant “irrational”, of a magnitude that has no ratio to another of the same kind,^[4] and Plato plays on this when he says that children should not be left “irrational, like lines”.^[4][3] Lucian calls an unlucky day, on which no business was done, an ἄλογος ἡμέρα, the equivalent of Latin diēs nefāstus.^[2] The New Testament speaks of “unreasoning animals” and uses it of what seems absurd (Acts 25:27).^[5] It was borrowed into Coptic ⲁⲗⲟⲅⲟⲥ (alogos).^[7]

From the sense “irrational (animal)” the neuter ἄλογον came to mean “horse” in late Greek, first in a papyrus of AD 610.^[2][8] Triantafyllidis explains this as a word for an animal in general narrowed to the most important animal, especially in the army; it is the everyday Modern Greek word for horse, Modern Greek άλογο (álogo), while the adjective άλογος (álogos) “irrational” is learned.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Democritus uses τὰ ἄλογα for brute animals, and Philolaus uses the word of the irrational.^[2][4]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for what is absurd or unsuited to its purpose, and Sophocles for what cannot be uttered.^[2][6][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of the speechless, of unreasoning desires and of irrational opinion.^[2][3][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of irrational magnitudes in mathematics.^[4]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of unreasoning animals.^[5]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian calls an unlucky day an ἄλογος ἡμέρα.^[2][4]
• AD 610 – A papyrus uses the neuter ἄλογον for a horse.^[2]
• Modern Greek – άλογο (álogo) is the ordinary word for horse.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Speechless; the adverb ἀλόγως, without a word.^[2][3]
2. (Septuagint) Lacking eloquence.^[2]
3. That cannot be expressed in words, unutterable.^[2][3]
4. Lacking reason, unreasoning; τὰ ἄλογα, brute animals.^[2][3][5]
5. Contrary to reason, irrational, absurd; unaccountable, groundless.^[2][3][5]
6. (mathematics) Irrational, of a magnitude with no ratio to another.^[4][3]
7. Not reckoned on, unexpected.^[2]
8. ἄλογος ἡμέρα, a day on which no business may be done.^[2]

Noun

1. (late Greek) ἄλογον, a horse.^[2][8]

Word family

• ἄλογον (álogon)

Related words

• λόγος (lógos)
• Modern Greek άλογο (álogo)

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 m n o p q r s t u v 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 h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
8. ^ a b c d Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki