ἐμπόριον

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /em.pó.ri.on/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /emˈpo.ri.on/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /emˈpo.ri.on/^[1]

Forms

ἐμπόρῐον (empórion) n (genitive ἐμπορῐ́ου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ἔμπορος (émporos, “merchant, traveller”) with the suffix -ιον (-ion).^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it for a trading station, and mentions the officials in charge of one.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

It was a place of trade, usually on the coast: Thucydides mentions trading stations on the Thracian coast and says Corinth provided a market for the Greeks.^[3][4] At Athens τὸ ἐμπόριον was the exchange where merchants met.^[3] Demosthenes speaks of borrowing money there.^[3] An inscription from Macedonia uses it for a market centre of a district without a city, and Xenophon has the plural for merchandise.^[3]

In the Septuagint it is a mart, and the Gospel of John speaks of “a house of trade”.^[5][2] Latin borrowed it as emporium.^[1]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a trading station.^[3][4]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides mentions trading stations in Thrace.^[3][4]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for the commercial harbour of Athens.^[3]
• 1st century AD – The Gospel of John speaks of “a house of trade”.^[2]
• 3rd century AD – An inscription from Macedonia uses it for a market centre.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trading station, mart, commercial centre, often a port; an emporium.^[3][6]
2. (Athens) The commercial harbour, the exchange.^[3]
3. A market centre for a district without a city.^[3][1]
4. (plural) merchandise.^[3]

Related words

• ἔμπορος (émporos)
• Latin emporium
• English emporium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
6. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press