ἔθος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /é.tʰos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈe.θos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈe.θos/^[1]

Forms

ἔθος (éthos) n (genitive ἔθους or ἔθεος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes and Frisk start from an older *ϝέθος (*wéthos), Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *swedʰos, whose initial aspiration was lost by dissimilation before the aspirate of the second syllable (Grassmann's Law).^[2][3] So reconstructed, it can be compared with Sanskrit स्वधा (svadhā́, “custom, nature”), with the Germanic word for “custom”, Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍃 (sidus), from *sedʰu-, and perhaps with Latin sodālis (“comrade”).^[2][3] The base *swedʰ- may contain the reflexive pronoun *swé (“self”) (Greek ἕ (hé)); Wiktionary takes the second element as *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place”), which Frisk calls an arbitrary identification.^[2][1][3] The DGE also allows *sedʰos, compared with sēdēs (“seat”).^[4]

Within Greek it belongs with ἦθος (êthos, “character, disposition”) and εἴωθα (eíōtha, “I am accustomed”).^[3][5] The Byzantine etymologica derived it from ἐτεός (eteós, “true”) or from a verb ἔθω (étho, “to be wont”), and the Etymologicum Gudianum added that ἔθνος (éthnos, “people”) came from it, because every people has its own customs.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DGE's earliest example is in Parmenides (6th–5th century BC), who warns against letting much-experienced habit force one along a road.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Ionic and Attic it is a person's habit or a community's custom, often in set phrases: “it is the custom” with an infinitive, “by custom”, “according to custom”.^[5][7][8] Plato and Aristotle set custom, as a cause of human action, against nature, and a later proverb called habit “a second nature”.^[5][7]

In the New Testament it is both a personal habit (Jesus went out “as was his custom”) and the inherited practice of a people, the customs that Moses handed down.^[9][10] Modern Greek keeps the word as έθος (éthos), meaning “custom, habit”.^[11]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Parmenides uses it of habit as a force that misleads.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus, Sophocles and Thucydides use it for custom and habit.^[5][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato opposes custom to nature.^[5][7]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for personal habit and for the customs of the fathers.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Custom, habit, usage, of a person or a group.^[7][5][4]
2. (philosophy) Custom or habituation as a cause of action, opposed to nature.^[5]
3. (New Testament) An established practice handed down in a community, such as the customs of the Mosaic law.^[9][10]

Word family

• ἐθάς (ethás)
• ἐθίζω (ethízō)
• ἦθος (êthos)
• ἐθήμων (ethḗmōn)
• ἔθιμος (éthimos)

Usage notes

Set phrases include ἔθος ἐστί τινι “it is someone's custom” and ἐξ ἔθους or κατὰ τὸ ἔθος “out of habit, as usual”.^[8][7] The later proverb “custom, they say, is a second nature” is quoted by the emperor Julian.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
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 Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux