gehenna

Forms

gehenna f (genitive gehennae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γέεννα (géenna),^[1][2] from Biblical Hebrew גֵּיהִנּוֹם (Ge'henom),^[1] the name of a valley near Jerusalem.^[2][1]

Jerome explained the name from the valley of the sons of Hinnom.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tertullian uses it in the Apologeticum,^[2] for hell.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The valley near Jerusalem was where children were offered to Moloch;^[2][1] from it the name passed to hell.^[2] The TLL notes that it occurs only in the Bible and in Christian writers, who mostly echo or vary biblical passages;^[3] the Vulgate has it in the Gospel of Matthew, in reus erit gehennae ignis, “he will be liable to the fire of hell”.^[3][2] Augustine uses it often, and Arnobius has a plural.^[3]

In Medieval Latin it means hell and the torments of hell.^[4][5] Bede calls a pit spewing flames the mouth of hell,^[5] and Alcuin warns of its torments.^[5] The adjective gehennālis is derived from it.^[2][1]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it for hell.^[2][6]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius has it.^[3][6]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it in the Gospels.^[2][3][6]
• first third of the 8th century AD – Bede speaks of the mouth of hell.^[5][6]
• 793 – Alcuin warns of the torments of hell.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The valley of Hinnom near Jerusalem.^[2][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Hell, the place of torment of the damned.^[2][7][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) The torments of hell.^[4]

Word family

• gehennālis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson