ἀπολογία

From ᾰ̓πο- (apo-, “back”) +‎ λόγος (lógos, “speech”) +‎ -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, abstract noun–forming suffix).

ᾰ̓πολογῐ́ᾱ • (apologíā) f (genitive ᾰ̓πολογῐ́ᾱς); first declension (Attic, Koine)

1. a speech made in defense of something; apology

   ᾰ̓πολογῐ́ᾱν ποιεῖσθαι

   apologíān poieîsthai

   to make a defense

   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.61.1:

     Τοὺς μὲν λόγους οὐκ ἂν ᾐτησάμεθα εἰπεῖν, εἰ καὶ αὐτοὶ βραχέως τὸ ἐρωτηθὲν ἀπεκρίναντο καὶ μὴ ἐπὶ ἡμᾶς τραπόμενοι κατηγορίαν ἐποιήσαντο καὶ περὶ αὑτῶν ἔξω τῶν προκειμένων καὶ ἅμα οὐδὲ ᾐτιαμένων πολλὴν τὴν ἀπολογίαν καὶ ἔπαινον ὧν οὐδεὶς ἐμέμψατο.

     Toùs mèn lógous ouk àn ēitēsámetha eipeîn, ei kaì autoì brakhéōs tò erōtēthèn apekrínanto kaì mḕ epì hēmâs trapómenoi katēgorían epoiḗsanto kaì perì hautôn éxō tôn prokeiménōn kaì háma oudè ēitiaménōn pollḕn tḕn apologían kaì épainon hôn oudeìs emémpsato.

     • 1881 translation by Benjamin Jowett

       We should never have asked to speak, if the Plataeans had briefly answered the question which was put to them, and had not turned upon us and arraigned us while they made a long and irrelevant defence of their own doings, excusing themselves from charges which nobody brought against them, and praising what nobody blamed.

   • 400 BCE – 387 BCE, Plato, Apology 28a:

     ἀλλὰ γάρ, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἀθηναῖοι, ὡς μὲν ἐγὼ οὐκ ἀδικῶ κατὰ τὴν Μελήτου γραφήν, οὐ πολλῆς μοι δοκεῖ εἶναι ἀπολογίας, ἀλλὰ ἱκανὰ καὶ ταῦτα

     allà gár, ô ándres Athēnaîoi, hōs mèn egṑ ouk adikô katà tḕn Melḗtou graphḗn, ou pollês moi dokeî eînai apologías, allà hikanà kaì taûta

     • 1966 translation by Harold North Fowler

       Well then, men of Athens, that I am not a wrongdoer according to Meletus's indictment, seems to me not to need much of a defence, but what has been said is enough

   • New Testament, Epistle to the Philippians 1:16:

     ὅτι εἰς ἀπολογίαν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου κεῖμαι

     hóti eis apologían toû euangelíou keîmai

     because I am here for the defense of the gospel

• κᾰτηγορῐ́ᾱ (katēgoríā)

• Greek: απολογία (apología)
• → Bulgarian: апология (apologija)
• → Latin: apologia (see there for further descendants)
• → Macedonian: апологија (apologija)
• → Russian: апология (apologija)
• → Serbo-Croatian: апологија, apologija

• “ἀπολογία”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press