ἔθνος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

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

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

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Coptic: ⲉⲑⲛⲟⲥ (ethnos)
• → English: ethnos
• Greek: έθνος (éthnos)
• → Russian: э́тнос (étnos)

from the spoken alternative form ἕθνος (héthnos):

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

Further reading

• “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 (2006–2024)
• “ἔθνος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G1484 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.
  • 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, →ISBN, pages 377–378