ἄνω

Forms

ᾰ̓́νω (ánō) ^[1] Aeolic ὄνω (ónō).^[2] Comparative ἀνωτέρω (anōtérō) (also ἀνώτερον in Aristotle, Polybius and the New Testament), superlative ἀνωτάτω (anōtátō).^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἀνά (aná, “up, upon”) + -ω (-ō).^[1][2][3][4] Babiniotis takes the ending to be modelled on adverbs such as οὕτω (hoútō).^[5] The Aeolic form ὄνω (ónō) goes with the Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot preposition ὀν (on).^[2][6] The preposition itself is *aná.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means “upwards”, of Sisyphus pushing his stone up the hill in the Odyssey, and once in the Iliad “out to sea”, of the extent of Lesbos.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

With verbs of motion it meant “upwards” and also “up-river” and “inland”: Herodotus uses it of sailing upstream and of travelling up country, and Xenophon calls the Persian ruler the king of the upper country.^[2][3] With verbs of rest it meant “above, on high”; in tragedy it set the living on earth against the dead below, and the gods above against the gods of the underworld.^[2][7] Geographically it could mean “to the north” (Herodotus), and in Athens the upper city as opposed to the Piraeus (Thucydides).^[2]

Plato uses it of time, “formerly” (of ancestors, “those of old”), and of a passage “above” in a discussion, and Aristotle uses it of the upper parts of the body.^[2] The phrase “up and down” described confusion: Euripides speaks of those who turn everything upside down.^[2][8]

In the New Testament it is “above” in the sense of heaven: the Jerusalem above, the call from above.^[2][9] Medieval vernacular Greek kept the adverb and the phrase άνω κάτω (áno káto).^[10] In Modern Greek άνω (áno) is a learned word, beside the popular πάνω (páno).^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of a stone pushed uphill, and the Iliad of a region stretching out to sea.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of sailing upstream, of travelling inland and of the north.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Euripides' Medea has rivers flowing upwards to their springs, an image Demosthenes later used as a proverb.^[2][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles contrasts the living above with the dead below.^[2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of earlier generations and of something said above.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of the Jerusalem above.^[2][9]
• 1100–1669 – Medieval vernacular texts still use it, also in the phrase άνω κάτω (áno káto, “upside down”).^[10]
• Modern Greek – άνω (áno) survives as a learned word.^[11]

Meanings

Adverb

1. With verbs of motion: upwards; upstream; inland, up country.^[2][3]
2. With verbs of rest: above, on high; on the upper floor or high ground.^[2][3]
3. On earth, among the living, as opposed to the world below.^[2]
4. In the heavens; of the gods above; in the New Testament, of heaven.^[2][9]
5. To the north; inland from the coast.^[2]
6. Of time: in former times; of a text: above, earlier.^[2]
7. ἄνω καὶ κάτω: up and down, to and fro; topsy-turvy.^[2][8]
8. ἄνω ποταμῶν: “rivers flow upwards”, proverbial of what runs against nature.^[2][8][3]

Preposition

1. With the genitive: above.^[3]

Word family

• ἄνωθεν (ánōthen)
• ἀνωτέρω (anōtérō)
• ἀνωτάτω (anōtátō)

Related words

• κάτω (kátō)

Usage notes

LSJ heads a separate verb ἄνω, the same as ἀνύω (anúō), “to accomplish”, used by Homer (“they made their way”) and, in the passive, of time drawing to its end.^[2][4]

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 k l m n o p q r s t u v w x 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
8. ^ a b c d Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki