Abarim Publications' online Biblical Greek Dictionary
δημος
The familiar noun δημος (demos) denotes either a country, district or land, or the people in it, but its emphasis appears to be on the commonness of the grey masses. In the classics it appears in contrast with ευδαιμων (eudaimon), meaning "of good genius" or an educated and smart person; a παχεες (pachees), or someone of substance, the wealthy class; and δυναστης (dunastes), which describes an "enabled one," someone with the means and opportunity to do whatever. In military contexts our word δημος (demos) distinguishes soldiers from officers. A rarely used homograph means "fat" — that is fat that sits on sacrificial meat — which gives a whole new meaning to the expression "living off the fat of the land" (Genesis 45:18).
In the Bible our word occurs only 4 times, see full concordance, and each time it denotes an uncontrolled but semi-united crowd.
Liddell and Scott (An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon) say the origin of our word is uncertain but Spiros Zodhiates (The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary) believes that it came from the verb δεω (deo), meaning to bind. That would make a δημος (demos) a bound bunch of people, but it isn't clear whether they would be bound by social cohesion or by the ruling elite.
The hallowed word δημοκρατια (democratia), meaning democracy (which isn't used in the Bible) consists of our word δημος (demos) and κρατος (kratos), meaning power, which describes a system of government that's not dominated by one or a few people but a ruling class that benefits from a mute and subdued working class.
A direct derivation of our noun is:
- The adjective δημοσιος (demosios), meaning belonging to the people; public, or publicly. This word is used 4 times; see full concordance.
Compound words that contain our noun are:
- Together with the preposition απο (apo), mostly meaning from: the adjective αποδημος (apodemos), meaning one gone abroad, one absent from his own country; an emigrant (Mark 13:34 only).
- Derived from the above is the verb αποδημεω (apodemeo), meaning to go away from one's home country or people. This verb is used 6 times see full concordance.
- Together with the otherwise unused verb αγορευω (agoreuo), meaning to speak publicly (from the noun αγορα, agora, meaning market place or forum): the verb δημηγορεω (demegoreo), meaning to address a group of people or make a public oration (Acts 12:21 only).
- Together with the noun εργον (ergon), meaning work: the adjective δημιουργος (demiourgos), literally denoting someone who works for the masses. In the classics this word denotes someone like a sculptor, a framer or a medical practitioner but here and there it's used to denote the Maker of the World and in some Peloponnesian states it's used as name for a magistrate (says Liddell and Scott's Lexicon). Strikingly, in the Bible our word is used only once, and that to describe God. In Hebrews 11:10 he is called the δημιουργος (demiourgos) or the Social Worker Jerusalem.
- Together with the preposition εκ (ek), meaning out or from: the verb εκδημεω (ekdemeo), meaning to go or be out from one's people, to travel abroad (2 Corinthians 5:6, 5:8 and 5:9 only). This word is the opposite of ενδημεω (endemeo), to be with one's people, to be home (see below) and rather similar to αποδημεω (apodemeo), as discussed above. Also see the word αδημονεω (ademoneo), to be depressed (further below). From εκδημεω (ekdemeo), to be out of home, in turn comes:
- Together with the preposition συν (sun), meaning together or with: the noun συνεκδημος (sunekdemos), meaning fellow traveler abroad, one who with whom one is jointly out from one's people (Acts 19:29 and 2 Corinthians 8:19 only).
- With the common preposition εν (en), meaning in, on, at, by: the verb ενδημεω (endemeo), meaning to be with or among one's people or home (2 Corinthians 5:6, 5:8 and 5:9 only). This word is the opposite of εκδημεω (ekdemeo), to be out of one's people (see above).
- Together with the preposition επι (epi), meaning on or upon: the noun επιδημος (epidemos), literally meaning "upon the people" in the sense of a non-integrated addition, or even a burden to the natives: tourists, refugees, resident aliens, migrant workers, diasporic groups. This word appears to be largely negative, and seems comparable the familiar term βαρβαρος (barbaros), barbarous (or barbarian when used substantively), which was probably associated with the noun βαρος (baros), weight or heaviness. Our noun επιδημος (epidemos) is the source of our English word "epidemic", which essentially describes a non-native entity that is upon/among the people, not belonging there (and having long outstayed its welcome). Another use of our word is in the term πολεμος επιδημος (polemos epidemos), meaning civil war (see Iliad 9.63).
Our noun is not used independently in the New Testament, but from it derive:- The verb επιδημεω (epidemeo), meaning to be upon the people: to be an alien with an unspoken implication of exerting a burden to the host population (Acts 2:10 and 17:21 only).
- Together with the preposition παρα (para), meaning near or nearby: the adjective παρεπιδημος (parepidemos), meaning the same as the previous but slightly less alien to the host population: descriptive of a resident alien who is somewhat integrated but still recognized and treated as an outlander and perhaps even living in a ghetto or designated neighborhood (Hebrews 11:13, 1 Peter 1:1 and 2:11 only).
αδημονεω
The verb αδημονεω (ademoneo) means to faint or be deeply troubled or depressed (Matthew 26:37, Mark 14:33 and Philippians 2:26 only). It's entirely unclear where this word comes from, and most lexicons safely skip any discussion of this word's possible etymology.
Here at Abarim Publications we also don't know either, of course, but if we were to guess, we would guess that a creative Koine speaker might have naturally associated our word with the above, δημος (demos), one's people or familiar lands — taking the leading α (a) for the familiar particle of negation or even a truncated version of απο (apo), meaning [away] from.
Eustathius of Thessalonica indeed suggested (as cited but pronounced "doubtful" by Liddell and Scott), that our word may stem from the compound αποδημος (apodemos), meaning away from one's people (see above). This term was common enough to have morphed into αδημονος (ademonos), also because of the obvious proximity to the familiar term μονος (monos), only or alone.
And regardless of whether this word was indeed so formed, rather than borrowed intact from, say, a pre-Greek language, any Koine speaker would probably have explained this word according to its available associations with other terms. That means that to anybody not too concerned with formal etymology, our verb αδημονεω (ademoneo) expresses the kind of depression that comes from being isolated or not understood or rejected for being different: a feeling lost. In the New Testament, our word twice describes a sensation experienced by Jesus. Jesus was never actually lost, of course, but he experienced everything we do (Hebrews 4:15), and that would include feeling lost and disconnected from the people we love most.