Etymologically
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ὀλιγαρχία

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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]
  • 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