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Old & New Testament Greek Lexical Dictionary Greek Lexicon
Strong's #767 - ἄσημος
- Thayer
- Strong
- Mounce
- unmarked or unstamped
- of money
- unknown, of no mark, insignificant, ignoble
- Book
- Word
- Parsing
ἄσημος,
Dor. ἄσᾱμος, ον,
I
1. without mark or token, ἄ. χρυσός uncoined gold, bullion, or plate, Hdt. 9.41; ἄ. χρυσίον, ἀργύριον, Th. 2.13, 6.8, Alex. 69; freq. in Inscrr., opp. ἐπίσημον, IG 1.170.6, 2.652 B 22, etc., cf. Luc. Cont. 10; also of cattle, not branded, IG 7.3171; of persons, without distinguishing marks (e. g. οὐλαί), PGrenf. 1.27.7, al.; ἄ. ὅπλα arms without device, E. Ph. 1112: generally, shapeless, formless, Opp. C. 3.160.
2. later τὸ ἄσημον (sc. ἀργύριον) plate, silver, LXX Job 42:11, AP 11.371 (Pall.); μέταλλα ἀσήμου silver -mines, Ptol. Geog. 7.2.17: also, = electron, alloy of gold and silver, or an imitation thereof, Ps.-Democr. Alch. p.49 B., etc.: — masc. ἄσημος, ὁ, PLeid.X. 6, al.
II of sacrifices, oracles, and the like, unintelligible, χρηστήρια Hdt. 5.92. β; χρησμοί A. Pr. 662; ἄ. ὀργίων μαντεύματε S. Ant. 1013.
III
1. leaving no mark, indistinct, to the hearing, πτερῶν γὰρ ῥοῖβδος οὐκ ἄ. ἦν ib. 1004; of sounds and voices, inarticulate, unintelligible, ἄσημα φράζειν Hdt. 1.86; ἄ. κνυζήματα Id. 2.2; ἄσημα βοῆς, = ἄσημος βοή, S. Ant. 1209. without significance, meaningless, [ τοῦ διπλοῦ ὀνόματος] τὸ μὲν ἐκ σημαίνοντος καὶ ἀσήμου Arist. Po. 1457a33, Rh. 1405a35; ἄσημα τρίζειν, of a mouse, Babr. 108.23; μόριον Stoic. 2.46; λέξις Simp. in Ph. 1164.4. to the eye, ἄσημον ἔχειν μυελόν Arist. PA 652a1: generally, πρὸς τὴν αἴσθησιν -ότερα Id. Aud. 802a14. generally, unperceived, unnoticed, A. Ag. 1596, S. Ant. 252; ἀσήμων ὑπὲρ ἑρμάτων hidden, sunken rocks, Anacr. 38. of persons, cities, etc., of no mark, obscure, insignificant, οὐκ ἄ. E. HF 849, cf. Ion 8; νὺξ οὐκ ἄ. a night to be remembered (being a feast), Antipho 2.4.8; τὸ τῆς πατρίδος ἢ τοῦ γένους ἄσημον Phld. Sto.Herc. 339.16. Adv. -μως without leaving traces, Hp. Epid. 1.1, Morb.Sacr. 11; ἀ. πορεύεσθαι X. Cyn. 3.4; ἀ. καὶ κενῶς φθέγγεσθαι inarticulately, Theopomp.Hist. 250.
2. ignobly, οὐκ ἀ. D.S. 5.52, Hdn. 1.10.4.
ἄσημος, ἄσημον (σῆμα a mark), unmarked or unstamped (money); unknown, of no mark, insignificant, ignoble: Acts 21:39. (3Macc. 1:3; in Greek writings from Herodotus down; tropically, from Euripides, down.)
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ἄσημος , -ον
(< σῆμα , a mark),
[in LXX: Genesis 30:42 (H5848), Job 42:11, 3 Maccabees 1:3 *;]
without mark (in Papyri of an uncircumcised boy: Deiss., BS, 153; MM, s.v.). Metaph. (MM, s.v.), unknown, obscure: litotes, οὐκ ἄ (Eur., al.), πόλις , Acts 21:39.†
Copyright © 1922 by G. Abbott-Smith, D.D., D.C.L.. T & T Clarke, London.
This word occurs perpetually in the papyri to denote a man who is ";not distinguished"; from his neighbours by the convenient scars on eyebrow or arm or right shin which identify so many individuals in formal documents. Thus in P Oxy I. 73.28 f. (A.D. 94) a slave is described as μελίχρωτ [α μακρ ]οπ [ρ ]όσωπον ἄσημον , and similarly in P Fay 28.13 f. (A.D. 150–1) (= Selections, p. 82) the parents in giving notice of the birth of a son sign themselves—
Ἰσχυρ ]ᾶς (ἐτῶν ) μ ̄δ ̄ ἄσημος
Θαισάριον (ἐτῶν ) κ ̄δ ἄσημος .
From the fact that in BGU I. 347 (ii/A.D.), an as yet uncircumcised boy is twice described as ἄσημος Deissmann (BS p. 153) conjectures that ἄ . may have been the technical term for ";uncircumcised"; among the Greek Egyptians, but cites Krebs (Philologus liii. p. 586), who interprets it rather as = ";free from bodily marks owing to the presence of which circumcision was forborne"; : cf. Preisigke 16.15 (A.D. 155–6), where formal enquiry is made as to a priest’s sons, εἴ τινα σημεῖ [α ἔχουσιν , and leave for circumcision is apparently given if these signs are not conspicuous (Wilcken Archiv v. p. 435 f.).
In BGU I. 22.32 (A.D. 114) (= Selections, p. 76) a pair of silver bracelets are described as of ἀσήμου ";unstamped"; silver, and the same epithet is applied to a δακτυριτριω , apparently some kind of a ring, in P Lond 193 verso.4 (ii/A.D.) (= II. p. 245). So Syll 586.72 (early iv/B.C., Athens) ἀργύριον σύμμεικτον ἄσημον , weighing so much, followed by χρυσίον ἄσημον , so much. The word became technical in commerce, so that Middle Persian borrowed it as as+m ";silver"; (P. Horn, in Grundriss d. iran. Philol. I. ii. p. 20). So MGr ἀσήμι , with the same meaning.
The only NT instance of ἄσημος is in Acts 21:39 (cf. 3 Maccabees 1:3), where it = ";undistinguished, obscure,"; as sometimes in classical writers, as Euripides Ion 8, οὐκ ἄσημος Ἑλλήνων πόλις (i. e. Athens). Cf. Chrest. I. 14iii. 10 (p. 27—c. A.D. 200) ἐγ ]ὼ μὲν οὔκ εἰμι δοῦλος οὐδὲ μουσικῆς [υἱ ]ός , ἀλλὰ διασήμου πόλεως [Ἀ ]λεξαν [δρ ]εί [ας ] γυμνασίαρχος . For the evidence that Tarsus was ";no mean city"; see Ramsay, Cities, p. 85 ff., and more recently Böhlig, Die Geisteskultur von Tarsos im augusteischen Zeitalter (Göttingen, 1913). The adj. is applied to a ship in P Lond 948.2 (A.D. 236) (= III. p. 220), ";without a figurehead"; (παράσημος —q.v.).
Copyright © 1914, 1929, 1930 by James Hope Moulton and George Milligan. Hodder and Stoughton, London.
Derivative Copyright © 2015 by Allan Loder.
