ἔκδοτος

Forms

ἔκδοτος (ékdotos) m or f (neuter ἔκδοτον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἐκ- (ek-) + δοτός (dotós, “given”), the verbal adjective of ἐκδίδωμι (ekdídōmi, “to give up, hand over”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it of a man handed over to the Persians, and Euripides in the Ion has it too.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose it was a word of politics and law, usually with a verb of giving or making: to hand someone over to an enemy or to a foreign court, to surrender a suppliant, to give up a whole region such as Boeotia to the Thebans.^[4][5][7] Demosthenes used it of extradition.^[5] Hesychius and the Lexica Segueriana gloss it as “betrayed”.^[8][9]

In the Acts of the Apostles Jesus is “handed over” to be put to death.^[3][4] Later writers used it figuratively of giving oneself wholly to someone or something, and a 6th-century papyrus of a woman given in marriage.^[4] Modern Greek έκδοτος (ékdotos) is a learned form, with the sense of French adonné: given over to pleasures or vice.^[10][2]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Euripides use it of people handed over to an enemy.^[4][5][6]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes and Aeschines use it of extradition and of surrendering a region.^[5][4]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of handing over men to the Romans.^[5][7]
• 1st century AD – The Acts of the Apostles use it of Jesus handed over to death.^[3][4]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses it of a woman giving herself up entirely to someone.^[4][5]
• 6th century AD – A papyrus uses it of a woman given in marriage.^[4]
• Modern Greek – It means given over to pleasures or vice.^[10][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Given up, surrendered to an enemy or authority; extradited.^[4][7][5]
2. Betrayed, delivered up.^[4][8]
3. (figurative) Given over wholly to someone or something.^[4][5]
4. (Byzantine) Given in marriage.^[4]

Related words

• ἐκδίδωμι (ekdídōmi)
• δοτός (dotós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki