ἐλεύθερος

Forms

ἐλεύθερος (eleútheros) m (feminine ἐλευθέρᾱ, neuter ἐλεύθερον); first/second declension^[1]

• Mycenaean Greek e-re-u-te-ro.^[2][3]
• Delphian ἐλαύθερος (elaútheros), Elean ἐλεύθαρος (eleútharos).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *eléutʰeros, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁léwdʰeros, an adjective of the root Proto-Indo-European *h₁lewdʰ- (“to grow up; people”).^[1][5][2] The same adjective is Latin līber (“free”), which is also a divine name and epithet in Latin and other Italic languages.^[2][6][5]

Beekes starts from an old word for “people” found in Germanic and Balto-Slavic, as Old High German liut, Old English lēod and Lithuanian liáudis (“common people”), while the same root gives Old Church Slavonic людинъ (ljudinŭ, “free man”); so the Greek and the Latin adjective would first have meant “belonging to the people (tribe)”, as opposed to subject peoples.^[2][1] Chantraine found this link with the words for people attractive but unprovable, and noted that the long ī of the Latin word is a difficulty.^[6] The root is probably that of ἐλεύσομαι (eleúsomai) “I shall come”, from a sense “to grow, rise”, and the initial ἐ- is a prothetic vowel.^[2][3]

The Etymologicum Magnum derives it from ἐλεύθω (eleúthō) “to go”, as one who goes where he pleases.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Mycenaean tablets Mycenaean Greek e-re-u-te-ro is used of what is free, that is exempt from taxes.^[5][2] Homer has the word only in the Iliad and only in two phrases: ἐλεύθερον (eleútheron) ἦμαρ (êmar) “the day of freedom”, that is freedom, and the κρητήρ (krētḗr) “of freedom”, the mixing bowl set up to celebrate deliverance from the enemy.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

From the lyric poets on, it describes persons who are not slaves or subject to another, and cities or countries that are independent; the neuter with the article means freedom.^[8][4] It also takes the sense of ἐλευθέριος (eleuthérios), worthy of a free man: frank, generous, liberal of mind or speech, already in Pindar.^[4][8] With a genitive it means free from someone or something.^[8] Of things it means open to all, and Xenophon calls “free” the square in the Persian capital that was kept for public buildings and closed to traders.^[4][8] Of property it means unencumbered, and an inscription of Halicarnassus uses it of what one is legally permitted to do.^[4]

In Roman times it translated the status of free cities, and in papyri the feminine is used for a married woman or wife.^[4] In the New Testament it is used of free persons as opposed to slaves (“there is neither slave nor free”) and of being free from an obligation, from the law or from a tax.^[9][10] Coptic borrowed it, with manuscripts from AD 375 on.^[11] It continues as Modern Greek ελεύθερος (eléftheros), from which Romanian lefter was borrowed.^[1][1]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – Mycenaean Greek e-re-u-te-ro, of what is exempt from taxes.^[5][2]
• Homer – The Iliad has “the day of freedom” and the mixing bowl of freedom.^[4][8]
• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses it of free persons.^[4][8][3]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of a frank, liberal mind.^[4][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the neuter for freedom.^[4][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon calls a square in the Persian capital “free”.^[4][8][3]
• New Testament – It is used of freedom from slavery, obligation or the law.^[9]
• AD 375 – The earliest Coptic manuscript with the borrowed word.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Free, not a slave; of states, free, independent.^[4][8]
2. Of or belonging to freedom or to a free person: ἐλεύθερον (eleútheron) ἦμαρ (êmar) the day of freedom.^[4][8]
3. Befitting a free person: frank, liberal, generous.^[4][8]
4. With a genitive or a preposition: free from someone or something.^[8][9]
5. Of things, open to all; of property, unencumbered.^[4]
6. With εἰμί (eimí) and an infinitive: legally permitted to someone.^[4]

Noun

1. The neuter with the article: freedom.^[8][4]
2. (Koine) The feminine: a married woman, a wife.^[4]

Word family

• ἀπελεύθερος (apeleútheros)
• ἀπελευθερόω (apeleutheróō)
• ἐλευθερία (eleutheríā)
• ἐλευθερόστομος (eleutheróstomos)
• ἐλευθερόω (eleutheróō)
• ἐλευθερόψυχος (eleutherópsūkhos)

Related words

• ἐλευθέριος (eleuthérios)
• Latin līber

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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 n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
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. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
11. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig