Beyond the textbook definition: αὐτός
October 20, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Classics, Language
“Hey…….autistic.”
I was tutoring a student in ancient Greek, intermediate level.
“Right in the book…….” She pointed to a page in the textbook and sure enough, I saw:
autonomy
automatic
autistic
It was a list of derivatives from autos, the ancient Greek word that is the root of autism. In ancient Greek, though, autos means much more than “self,” the one meaning that is always cited in textbook etymologies of the word. The other meanings of autos are: (1) “He, she, it, they” (autos used as the third-person pronoun) and (2) “same” (autos in what is called the attributive position).
Like autos, autism can mean a lot more than your standard textbook definition has to offer.
(I have written more about the meanings of autos on Autismland in What is autism?).
Jeff Stimpson
Jill Cornfield