ἔθνος

See also: έθνος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἔθω (éthō), equivalent to Proto-Indo-European *swedʰ-no-, expanded from the reflexive pronoun Proto-Indo-European *swé (“self”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /é.tʰnos/ → /ˈe.θnos/ → /ˈe.θnos/

• (5^th BC Attic) IPA^(key): /é.tʰnos/
• (1^st BC Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈɛ.tʰnos/
• (4^th AD Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈe.θnos/
• (10^th AD Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈe.θnos/
• (15^th AD Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈe.θnos/

Noun

ἔθνος • (éthnos) n (genitive ἔθνεος or ἔθνους); third declension

1. group of people: tribe, family
2. group of animals: flock, herd
3. country, nation
4. (later, in the plural) foreign nations, barbarians
5. (Jewish and Christian usage, in the plural) gentiles, heathen
6. class, caste

Inflection

Third declension of ἔθνος, ἔθνεος (uncontracted)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ ἔθνος	τὼ ἔθνεε	τὰ ἔθνεᾰ
Genitive	τοῦ ἔθνεος	τοῖν ἐθνέοιν	τῶν ἐθνέων
Dative	τῷ ἔθνεϊ	τοῖν ἐθνέοιν	τοῖς ἔθνεσσῐ(ν)
Accusative	τὸ ἔθνος	τὼ ἔθνεε	τὰ ἔθνεᾰ
Vocative	ἔθνος	ἔθνεε	ἔθνεᾰ
Dialectal forms:
Notes:	This inflection pattern originally had a sigma (i.e. *ἔθνεσος), which was dropped early in the history of Ancient Greek.

Third declension of ἔθνος, ἔθνους (contracted)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ ἔθνος	τὼ ἔθνει	τὰ ἔθνη
Genitive	τοῦ ἔθνους	τοῖν ἐθνοῖν	τῶν ἐθνῶν
Dative	τῷ ἔθνει	τοῖν ἐθνοῖν	τοῖς ἔθνεσῐ(ν)
Accusative	τὸ ἔθνος	τὼ ἔθνει	τὰ ἔθνη
Vocative	ἔθνος	ἔθνει	ἔθνη
Dialectal forms:
Notes:	The irregular accentuation of this paradigm is explained by the fact that it is the contracted version of the above paradigm.

Derived terms

• ἐθνάρχης (ethnárkhēs)
• ἐθναρχία (ethnarkhía)
• ἐθνηδόν (ethnēdón)
• ἐθνικός (ethnikós)
• ἐθνίτης (ethnítēs)
• ἐθνοφύλαξ (ethnophúlax)

Descendants

• Coptic: ⲉⲑⲛⲟⲥ (ethnos)
• French: ethnie f
• Greek: έθνος (éthnos)
• Portuguese: etnia
• Russian: э́тнос (étnos)

from the spoken alternative form ἕθνος (héthnos):

• Aramaic:
  • Classical Syriac: ܗܬܢܘܣ‏ (haṯnōs)
• Coptic: ϩⲉⲑⲛⲟⲥ (hethnos)
• Old Armenian: հեթանոս (hetʿanos)
  • Armenian: հեթանոս (hetʿanos)

References

• ἔθνος in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ἔθνος in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἔθνος in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «ἔθνος» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• «ἔθνος» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• «ἔθνος» in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (© 2006–2017)
• ἔθνος in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G1484”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • caste idem, page 117.
  • class idem, page 135.
  • folk idem, page 332.
  • nation idem, page 551.
  • order idem, page 578.
  • people idem, page 604.
  • race idem, page 667.
  • tribe idem, page 894.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, pages 377–378