ἄνθρωπος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /án.tʰrɔː.pos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈan.θro.pos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈan.θro.pos/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓́νθρωπος (ánthrōpos) m or f (genitive ᾰ̓νθρώπου); second declension^[1] Mycenaean a-to-ro-qo /anthrōkʷos/.^[2] Cretan ἄντρωπος, Laconian ἀνθρωπώ (anthrōpṓ) “woman”; with the article, Attic ἅνθρωπος, Ionic ὥνθρωπος.^[3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed; none of the many proposals is decisive.^[3][5] Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because no Indo-European explanation has been found; he sees in it the Pre-Greek suffix -ωπ- and, following Kuiper, connects it with δρώψ (drṓps, “man”), with a shift of aspiration.^[2][6][1] The labiovelar of Mycenaean Greek a-to-ro-qo does not prove an Indo-European origin, since the substrate language had labiovelars too, as in βασιλεύς (basileús), Mycenaean qa-si-re-u.^[2] Scarborough's database rates the non-Greek origin as very reliable.^[7]

The traditional explanation is a compound of ἀνδρός (andrós), the stem of ἀνήρ (anḗr, “man”), and ὤψ (ṓps, “face, look”), “having a man's face”; but then *ἄνδρωπος would be expected, and the θ is unexplained.^[5][1][8] Rosén explained it by the laryngeal of ὤψ, which Beekes rejects.^[2][1] Garnier derives it from Proto-Indo-European *n̥dʰéreh₃kʷós (“that which is below”), hence “earthly”.^[1] The DGE thinks the first part may be related to Hittite antuḫšaš (“man”);^[3] Beekes regards the likeness as chance, since the Hittite word comes from *h₁en-dʰuh₂-s-, “having breath inside”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found on the Mycenaean tablets as a-to-ro-qo.^[2][9] In Homer it is mostly plural, and means men as a kind, set against the gods: “the immortal gods and men who walk upon the earth”.^[4][10] Homer never uses it of a particular man.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek ἄνθρωπος is a human being of either sex and any age, as opposed to a god or an animal, while ἀνήρ (anḗr) is the man as opposed to the woman.^[11][9] The vocative “man!” addresses a stranger, often with contempt.^[11] Used as a feminine, ἡ ἄνθρωπος, it is a contemptuous word for a woman or a slave woman, from Herodotus on.^[4][3][1] Plato uses it, with or without the article, for man as such, and in Epictetus “the man” is the ideal of humanity.^[4] Common phrases are “the best quail in the world” (literally “among men”) and κατ᾽ ἄνθρωπον “as befits a mortal”.^[4][11]

It is one of the commonest words of the Septuagint, which also uses it, after Hebrew, for “each one”.^[12] In the New Testament it contrasts humans with God and the angels, and appears in the idioms of the “inner” and the “old” man and in the title “the Son of Man”.^[13][14]

Medieval vernacular Greek had the forms άθρωπος and άνθρουπος, and also used the word for an inhabitant or for the men of a ship's crew.^[15] Modern Greek άνθρωπος (ánthropos) means the human being and also a decent, humane person.^[16][9] English words in anthropo- come from it.^[8]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – The tablets have a-to-ro-qo.^[2]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey contrast men with the gods.^[4][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the feminine contemptuously of a woman.^[4][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for man as such, and his Cratylus gives an ancient etymology of it.^[4][17][3]
• 4th century BC – Aeschines uses it for a man as opposed to a woman.^[11][3]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses the title “the Son of Man”.^[14][13]
• 1100–1669 – Medieval vernacular Greek has the forms άθρωπος and άνθρουπος.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A human being, man or woman, as opposed to the gods or the animals.^[4][11]
2. (plural) mankind, people.^[4][10]
3. (vocative) “Man!”, addressing a stranger, often with contempt.^[11]
4. (with another noun) A person who is something: ἄνθρωπος ὁδίτης “a wayfarer”.^[11][4]
5. A man, as opposed to a woman.^[11]
6. (feminine, contemptuous) A woman; a slave woman.^[4][1]
7. (philosophy) Man as such, humanity.^[4][1]
8. (New Testament) A husband; ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, “the Son of Man”, a title of Jesus.^[14][13]

Word family

• ἀνθρώπειος (anthrṓpeios)
• ἀνθρώπινος (anthrṓpinos)
• ἀνθρωποειδής (anthrōpoeidḗs)
• μισάνθρωπος (mīsánthrōpos)
• ἀνθρώπιον (anthrṓpion)
• ἀνθρωπικός (anthrōpikós)

Related words

• δρώψ (drṓps)
• English philanthropy

Usage notes

Plato's Cratylus explains ἄνθρωπος as the creature that “looks up at what it has seen” (ἀναθρεῖ ἃ ὄπωπε), unlike the other animals; later writers derived it from its upright posture or its articulate voice.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c d e f g 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 k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
12. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
13. ^ a b c 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
14. ^ a b c United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
15. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
16. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
17. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram