Etymology of Greek agap- 'love'

Author

Gerald Leonard Cohen, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
Joseph Wallfield

Abstract

Indo-Europeanists have long been mystified by the origin of Greek agap-. It is known that the verb (agapaō, agpadzō) arose before the noun (agapē), which is a back-formation that first appears in the Jewish Hellenistic Greek of the Septuagint (II Kingdoms XIII 15), but scholars have been unable to locate a likely Greek or PIE. root from which agap- could derive.

Recommended Citation

Cohen, G. L., & Wallfield, J. (1985). Etymology of Greek agap- 'love'. Indogermanische Forschungen, 90, pp. 99-103. De Gruyter.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110243321.99

Department(s)

Arts, Languages, and Philosophy

Comments

To the memory of our good friend and colleague, Gilbert Davidowitz (August 31, 1931-July 21, 1980) who already in the mid-1960s drew our attention to numerous similarities between Greek and the Semitic languages.

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1613-0405

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 1985 De Gruyter, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

31 Dec 1985