μετάνοια

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From μετανοέω (metanoéō, “a change of mind, change of attitude”) +‎ -ῐᾰ (-ĭă).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /me.tá.noi̯.a/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /meˈta.ny.a/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /meˈta.ny.a/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /meˈta.ny.a/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /meˈta.ni.a/

Noun

μετᾰ́νοιᾰ • (metắnoiă) f (genitive μετᾰνοίᾱς); first declension

afterthought, repentance
- 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.36
- 362 BCE – 262 BCE, Philemon, Collected Works 198
- 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 4.66.7
- 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Septuagint, Proverbs 14.15
- 700 BCE – 600 BCE, Aristeas, Collected Works 188
- 480 BCE – 411 BCE, Antiphon of Rhamnus, Collected Works 2.4.12
- 342 BCE – 290 BCE, Menander, Monostichoi 91
- New Testament, Acts of the Apostles 20:21
- New Testament, Epistle to the Hebrews 6:1
- 161 CE – 180 CE, Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.10:
  Ἡ μετάνοιά ἐστιν ἐπίληψίς τις ἑαυτοῦ ὡς χρήσιμόν τι παρεικότος.
  Hē metánoiá estin epílēpsís tis heautoû hōs khrḗsimón ti pareikótos.
  Regret is a kind of censure of oneself for having missed a favorable opportunity.

Declension

First declension of ἡ μετᾰ́νοιᾰ; τῆς μετᾰνοίᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ μετᾰ́νοιᾰ hē metắnoiă	τὼ μετᾰνοίᾱ tṑ metănoíā	αἱ μετᾰ́νοιαι hai metắnoiai
Genitive	τῆς μετᾰνοίᾱς tês metănoíās	τοῖν μετᾰνοίαιν toîn metănoíain	τῶν μετᾰνοιῶν tôn metănoiôn
Dative	τῇ μετᾰνοίᾳ tēî metănoíāi	τοῖν μετᾰνοίαιν toîn metănoíain	ταῖς μετᾰνοίαις taîs metănoíais
Accusative	τὴν μετᾰ́νοιᾰν tḕn metắnoiăn	τὼ μετᾰνοίᾱ tṑ metănoíā	τᾱ̀ς μετᾰνοίᾱς tā̀s metănoíās
Vocative	μετᾰ́νοιᾰ metắnoiă	μετᾰνοίᾱ metănoíā	μετᾰ́νοιαι metắnoiai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

Greek: μετάνοια (metánoia)
→ Coptic: ⲙⲉⲧⲁⲛⲟⲓⲁ (metanoia)
→ English: metanoia
→ Polish: metanoja (learned)
→ Serbo-Croatian: metanoja (learned)

Further reading

“μετάνοια”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“μετάνοια”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
μετάνοια in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
G3341 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- change idem, page 123.
- compunction idem, page 154.
- contrition idem, page 170.
- conversion idem, page 173.
- front idem, page 346.
- penitence idem, page 603.
- regret idem, page 687.
- remorse idem, page 693.
- repentance idem, page 696.
- revulsion idem, page 711.
- sorrow idem, page 795.

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek μετάνοια (metánoia).

Noun

μετάνοια • (metánoia) f (plural μετάνοιες)

change of mind, new mind
(by extension) prostration, genuflection

Declension

Declension of **μετάνοια**
	singular	plural
nominative	μετάνοια (metánoia)	μετάνοιες (metánoies)
genitive	μετάνοιας (metánoias)	-
accusative	μετάνοια (metánoia)	μετάνοιες (metánoies)
vocative	μετάνοια (metánoia)	μετάνοιες (metánoies)

The literary genitive μετανοίας (metanoías) is more common.