ἄνθραξ

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Quite uncertain; Strong's Concordance calls it a "prim[itive] word". Possibly from a Mediterranean substrate; compare Old Armenian անթայր (antʿayr, “spark; anthrax”), անթեղ (antʿeł, “hot coal, ember”).

Others have connected the word to Old Norse sintr, German Sinter (“sinter”), English sinder (“cinder, ashes, slag”), all from *sindrą (“dross, cinder, slag”), and via Proto-Indo-European *sendʰro- (“coagulating fluid, scale, cinder”) cognate to Old Church Slavonic сядра (sjadra, “lime cinder, gypsum”) (compare Serbo-Croatian sadra, Czech sádra). Kölligan suggests a connection to Sanskrit अन्ध (andha, “blind, darkness, etc.”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /án.tʰraks/ → /ˈan.θraks/ → /ˈan.θraks/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /án.tʰraks/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈan.tʰraks/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈan.θraks/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈan.θraks/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈan.θraks/

Noun

ἄνθραξ • (ánthrax) m (genitive ἄνθρακος); third declension

1. charcoal
2. a deep red precious stone, a carbuncle
3. an abscess, a boil, a carbuncle

Inflection

Third declension of ὁ ἄνθρᾰξ; τοῦ ἄνθρᾰκος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ἄνθρᾰξ ho ánthrax	τὼ ἄνθρᾰκε tṑ ánthrake	οἱ ἄνθρᾰκες hoi ánthrakes
Genitive	τοῦ ἄνθρᾰκος toû ánthrakos	τοῖν ἀνθρᾰ́κοιν toîn anthrákoin	τῶν ἀνθρᾰ́κων tôn anthrákōn
Dative	τῷ ἄνθρᾰκῐ tôi ánthraki	τοῖν ἀνθρᾰ́κοιν toîn anthrákoin	τοῖς ἄνθρᾰξῐ / ἄνθρᾰξῐν toîs ánthraxi(n)
Accusative	τὸν ἄνθρᾰκᾰ tòn ánthraka	τὼ ἄνθρᾰκε tṑ ánthrake	τοὺς ἄνθρᾰκᾰς toùs ánthrakas
Vocative	ἄνθρᾰξ ánthrax	ἄνθρᾰκε ánthrake	ἄνθρᾰκες ánthrakes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• ἀνθρακάριος (anthrakários)
• ἀνθρακεία (anthrakeía)
• ἀνθρακεύς (anthrakeús)
• ἀνθρακεύω (anthrakeúō)
• ἀνθρακηρός (anthrakērós)
• ἀνθρακιά (anthrakiá)
• ἀνθρακίας (anthrakías)
• ἀνθρακίδες (anthrakídes)
• ἀνθρακίζω (anthrakízō)
• ἀνθράκινος (anthrákinos)
• ἀνθράκιον (anthrákion)
• ἀνθρακῖτης (anthrakîtēs)
• ἀνθρακοβότανον (anthrakobótanon)
• ἀνθρακοειδής (anthrakoeidḗs)
• ἀνθρακοθήκη (anthrakothḗkē)
• ἀνθρακοκαύστης (anthrakokaústēs)
• ἀνθρακόομαι (anthrakóomai)
• ἀνθρακοπώλης (anthrakopṓlēs)
• ἀνθρακώδης (anthrakṓdēs)
• ἀνθρακωμα (anthrakōma)
• ἀνθρακών (anthrakṓn)
• ἀνθρακωσις (anthrakōsis)

 

Descendants

• → Czech: anthrax
• → English: anthrax, anthracite, anthracene
• → French: anthrax
• → German: Anthrax
• → Greek: άνθρακας (ánthrakas), άνθραξ (ánthrax)
• → Dutch: antrax
• → Serbo-Croatian: антракс
• → Translingual: Anthrax
• → Old Georgian: ანთრაკი (antraḳi)

Further reading

• “ἄνθραξ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἄνθραξ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἄνθραξ 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
• ἄνθραξ in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• G440 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • carbon idem, page 113.
  • charcoal idem, page 125.
  • coal idem, page 140.