αὐθέντης

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

αὐτοέντης (autoéntēs)

Etymology

From αὐτο- (auto-, “self”) +‎ *ἕντης (*héntēs), from the full-grade of Proto-Indo-European *senh₂- (“to prepare, work on, succeed”) +‎ -της (-tēs, masculine agentive suffix), whence also ἀνύω (anúō, “I effect, accomplish”), συνέντης (sunéntēs, “helper, accomplice”).^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /au̯.tʰén.tɛːs/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /aʍˈtʰen.te̝s/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /aɸˈθen.tis/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /afˈθen.tis/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /afˈθen.dis/

Noun

αὐθέντης • (authéntēs) m (genitive αὐθέντου); first declension

a perpetrator of any act, especially that he commits a murder with his own hand
a suicide, a person who has intentionally killed himself
an absolute ruler, an autocrat

Inflection

First declension of ὁ αὐθέντης; τοῦ αὐθέντου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ αὐθέντης ho authéntēs	τὼ αὐθέντᾱ tṑ authéntā	οἱ αὐθένται hoi authéntai
Genitive	τοῦ αὐθέντου toû authéntou	τοῖν αὐθένταιν toîn authéntain	τῶν αὐθεντῶν tôn authentôn
Dative	τῷ αὐθέντῃ tōî authéntēi	τοῖν αὐθένταιν toîn authéntain	τοῖς αὐθένταις toîs authéntais
Accusative	τὸν αὐθέντην tòn authéntēn	τὼ αὐθέντᾱ tṑ authéntā	τοὺς αὐθέντᾱς toùs authéntās
Vocative	αὐθέντᾰ authéntă	αὐθέντᾱ authéntā	αὐθένται authéntai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

αὐθεντέω (authentéō)
αὐθεντία (authentía)
αὐθεντικός (authentikós)

Descendants

Greek: αφέντης m (aféntis), αυθέντης m (afthéntis) (see there for further descendants)
→ Turkish: efendi, efendim

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “αὐθέντης, -ου”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 169

“αὐθέντης”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“αὐθέντης”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
αὐθέντης in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
αὐθέντης in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2025)
αὐθέντης in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- culprit idem, page 188.
- fratricidal idem, page 343.
- murderer idem, page 546.
- slayer idem, page 783.
- suicide idem, page 836.
αὐθέντης, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “αὐθέντης, -ου”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 169

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