ὑποκρίνομαι

Forms

ῠ̔ποκρῑ́νομαι (hupokrī́nomai) ^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ὑπο- (hupo-, “under”) + κρίνω (krī́nō, “to separate, judge, decide”), used in the middle voice;^[1][2][3] the active ὑποκρίνω (hupokrī́nō) “to separate” is a late Hellenistic word.^[2][4]

Chantraine explains the Homeric sense as “to explain by drawing the answer out of oneself”, especially of dreams; from it came Ionic “to answer” and Attic “to act a play”, then “to declaim” and “to play a part”.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to give an interpretative answer: a seer would interpret an omen in this way, a dream is to be interpreted, and the suitors declare their will in reply.^[7][4][6]

Semantic evolution

In Ionic it is the ordinary verb for “to answer”: Herodotus uses it of people and of oracles, while the Attic word was ἀποκρίνομαι (apokrī́nomai).^[4][8][9] Aristophanes still uses it for interpreting dreams.^[4][9]

In Attic it became the verb for speaking in dialogue on the stage: to be an actor, to act a play or a character.^[4][9] Demosthenes speaks of acting Sophocles' Antigone, and Aristotle notes that the poets first acted their own tragedies.^[4][9][2] Whether the actor, ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), was first “the one who answers” the chorus or “the one who interprets” has been much debated;^[5] Chantraine, with Lesky, prefers the interpreter.^[5][10][11]

From the stage it passed to orators who used histrionic arts and declaimed, and then to pretence in general: Demosthenes and Polybius use it with an infinitive for pretending to do something, and Aristotle speaks of playing the king.^[4][9][12] Ctesias already has the aorist passive form with middle sense.^[4] In the Septuagint and in Luke's Gospel, where spies pretend to be righteous, it means to dissemble.^[12][8][6] Late writers use it for representing a story dramatically or in art.^[4] Modern Greek keeps it as a learned word, υποκρίνομαι (ypokrínome) “to pretend; to play a role”.^[13][2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for interpreting omens and dreams and for answering.^[7][4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for “to reply”, also of oracles.^[4][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for interpreting dreams.^[4][9]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for acting a play, for histrionic oratory and for pretending, and Aristotle for actors.^[4][9]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for pretending to do something.^[4][9][12]
• 1st century AD – Luke's Gospel uses it of spies who pretend to be righteous.^[12][8]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Philostratus uses it for mimicking.^[4]
• Modern Greek – The learned υποκρίνομαι (ypokrínome) means to pretend.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To answer, reply; of an oracle, to respond (Ionic).^[4][9]
2. To interpret or explain a dream or omen.^[4][9][7]
3. To speak in dialogue on stage; to be an actor; to act a play or play a character.^[4][9]
4. To declaim; of an orator, to use histrionic arts.^[4][9]
5. (figurative) To play a part, feign, pretend, with an infinitive to pretend to do something.^[4][9][12]
6. To represent dramatically or in art; to mimic.^[4]

Word family

• ὑπόκρισις (hupókrisis)
• ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs)
• ὑποκριτικός (hupokritikós)

Related words

• ἀποκρίνομαι (apokrī́nomai)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ a b c Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
11. ^ Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e 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
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki