ἅγιος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *hágijos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yáǵ-yo-s, from *h₁yaǵ- (“to sacrifice, worship”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

ἅγιος • (hágios) m (feminine ἁγίᾱ, neuter ἅγῐον); first/second declension

1. devoted to the gods
2. of things: sacred, holy
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.41.5:

     ἐν ταύτῃ ὦ τῇ Προσωπίτιδι νήσῳ ἔνεισι μὲν καὶ ἄλλαι πόλιες συχναί, ἐκ τῆς δὲ αἱ βάριες παραγίνονται ἀναιρησόμεναι τὰ ὀστέα τῶν βοῶν, οὔνομα τῇ πόλι Ἀτάρβηχις, ἐν δ’ αὐτῇ Ἀφροδίτης ἱρὸν ἅγιον ἵδρυται.

     en taútēi ô têi Prosōpítidi nḗsōi éneisi mèn kaì állai pólies sukhnaí, ek tês dè hai báries paragínontai anairēsómenai tà ostéa tôn boôn, oúnoma têi póli Atárbēkhis, en d’ autêi Aphrodítēs hiròn hágion hídrutai.

     • 1920 translation by A. D. Godley

       There are many other towns on Prosopitis; the one from which the boats come to gather the bones of the bulls is called Atarbekhis; a temple of Aphrodite stands in it of great sanctity.

3. of people: holy, pious, pure
4. accursed

Declension

Related terms

• ἁγνός (hagnós)
• ἅγος (hágos)
• ἅζομαι (házomai)
• τρισάγιον (triságion)

Descendants

• Greek: άγιος (ágios)
• → Coptic: ϩⲁⲅⲓⲟⲥ (hagios)
• →⇒ English: hagio-
• →⇒ French: hagio-

Noun

ἅγιος • (hágios) m (genitive ἁγίου); second declension

1. (Koine, biblical) A Christian
   • 53 CE – 55 CE, Paul the Apostle, First Epistle to the Corinthians 6:1:

     Τολμᾷ τις ὑμῶν, πρᾶγμα ἔχων πρὸς τὸν ἕτερον, κρίνεσθαι ἐπὶ τῶν ἀδίκων καὶ οὐχὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἁγίων;

     Tolmâi tis humôn, prâgma ékhōn pròs tòn héteron, krínesthai epì tôn adíkōn kaì oukhì epì tôn hagíōn;

     • Translation by King James Version

       Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints?

2. (Koine, Byzantine) a saint

Declension

Further reading

• “ἅγιος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἅγιος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἅγιος 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
• ἅγιος in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• G40 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • blessed idem, page 83.
  • hallowed idem, page 381.
  • holy idem, page 403.
  • sacred idem, page 728.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN