ὀλιγαρχία

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /o.li.ɡar.kʰí.aː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /o.li.ɣarˈçi.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /o.li.ɣarˈçi.a/^[1]

Forms

ὀλιγαρχίᾱ (oligarkhíā) f (genitive ὀλιγαρχίᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs, “oligarch”) with the suffix -ία (-ía); the compound is formed from ὀλίγος (olígos, “few”) and the root of ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “rule”): “rule of the few”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it for government in the hands of a few families or persons, and an inscription from Thasos of the 5th century BC has the Ionic form ὀλιγαρχίη.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Athenian history it was the regime of the Four Hundred, in Thucydides, and of the Thirty, in Andocides and Plato's Apology.^[2] Plato's Republic and Statesman and Aristotle's Politics analyse it as a constitution, and Aristotle speaks of “unmixed oligarchy”.^[2] A scholion on Aeschines mentions a statue of Oligarchy personified.^[2]

Modern Greek ολιγαρχία (oligarchía) is a regime in which power belongs to a small privileged group, and by extension the small group that holds much of a country's wealth.^[4]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it, and a Thasian inscription has ὀλιγαρχίη.^[2]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for the regime of the Four Hundred.^[2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato analyses it in the Republic.^[2]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle classifies its kinds in the Politics.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. oligarchy, government by a few families or persons.^[2][3]
2. (personified) Oligarchy, as a statue.^[2]

Related words

• ὀλιγαρχέω (oligarkhéō)
• ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs)
• ὀλιγαρχικός (oligarkhikós)
• ὀλίγος (olígos)
• ἀρχή (arkhḗ)
• ἀριστοκρατία (aristokratía)
• δημοκρατία (dēmokratía)
• English oligarchy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki