ἐρημία

Forms

ἐρημίᾱ (erēmíā) f (genitive ἐρημίᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἐρῆμος (erêmos, “lonely, desolate”) with the abstract noun suffix -ία (-íā).^[1]

Beekes derives the adjective from Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁-mo-, from a root meaning “loose, rare, separate”, which he finds in Lithuanian ìrti (“to disintegrate”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the second line of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, of a wilderness.^[3][4] Aristophanes speaks of “the Scythian wilderness”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Herodotus it is a desert, and in classical prose any deserted or lonely place.^[3][5] As a state it meant solitude and loneliness (in Euripides' Medea, “to keep alone”), the isolation of someone without friends or helpers (Sophocles, the orators), and, with a genitive, the absence of something: “want of friends” in Xenophon, “an absence of enemies” on a march.^[3][5] Menander says that solitude is inventive.^[3]

The Septuagint and the New Testament use it for the wilderness, and 2 Corinthians sets it against the city.^[6][7]

In medieval Greek it became ερημιά (erimiá) with the two vowels merged into one syllable.^[8] Modern Greek has both this form, “solitude, lonely place”, and the learned ερημία (erimía).^[8][9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Aeschylus and Herodotus use it of a wilderness or desert.^[3][5]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for solitude, Thucydides for being left alone.^[3]
• 4th century BC – Xenophon uses it with a genitive for want of friends.^[3]
• 1st century AD – The Gospels use it for the wilderness.^[6]
• Middle Ages – The form ερημιά (erimiá) appears.^[8]
• Modern Greek – ερημιά (erimiá) is in use beside the learned form of the ancient word.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lonely place, wilderness, desert.^[3][5][6]
2. Solitude, loneliness.^[3][5]
3. Isolation, the state of being without friends or support.^[3][5]
4. Of places, desolation, lack of inhabitants.^[3][5]
5. With a genitive, absence or want of something; also freedom from evils.^[3][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 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. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ a b c d Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr