Ephebic

[Dr. Goodword]

• ephebic •

Pronunciation: i-fee-bik • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. In ancient Greece, a young man 18-20 years of age undergoing military training for full Athenian citizenship. 2. Any adolescent boy, teenager.

Notes: This word is used in its original sense, referring to ancient Greek youth: "In order to achieve citizenship in Athens, a boy reaching the age of 18 had to take the ephebic oath and serve in the army." Today, however, it is occasionally used in an extended sense: "Todd exhibited his ephebic naiveté when he had his current girlfriend's name tattooed on his chest."

In Play: This word is used in its original sense, referring to ancient Greek youth: "In order to achieve citizenship in Athens, a boy reaching the age of 18 had to take the ephebic oath and serve in the army." Today, however, it is occasionally used in an extended sense: "Todd exhibited his ephebic naiveté when he had his current girlfriend's name tattooed on his chest."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes to us from the Latinized form, ephebicus, borrowed from Greek ephebikos "of an ephebus" from Latin ephebus, borrowed from Greek ephebos "pubescent boy". This word is based on epi "upon" + hebe "early manhood, puberty". The Greek root was inherited from PIE yeu- "power, youth, strength", which obviously picked up a suffix -b along the way. Germanic languages preferred the suffix -g in their versions jung "young" in German and Dutch, and young. In Latin the same root went into the making of juvenis "young", where the J was pronounced [y]. English, in borrowing this word as juvenile, changed the pronunciation to the regular English pronunciation of J. In ancient Athens, a youth of 18 underwent his dokimasia, had his hair cut off, and was enrolled as a citizen after taking the ephebic oath. His chief occupation for the next two years was garrison duty. (Thank you, Sue Gold, of Westtown School, for thinking of this series when you came across today's Good Word in your reading.)

[George Kovac]

Ephebic is an excellent good word to add to our vocabulary. But it is a word that was used recently in a specific (and repugnant) context. The word should be used more broadly to shed that association for this otherwise noble word.

Not long enough ago, the Catholic hierarchy was attempting to defend or wish away the charges of clergy abuse and the cover-up of that abuse. The acclaimed movie “Spotlight” was an excellent examination of that topic.

In the same time frame covered by the movie, I remember a few odd opinion pieces in the main stream press by sympathetic conservative Catholics making whatever defenses they could of the hierarchy. One argument frequently advanced in those quarters was that much of the abuse involved not pre-adolescent children, but “ephebic” teenagers, as if that distinction made a difference.

Since then, I always cringed when I heard the word “ephebic” because I associate it with those arguments. I never knew of definition number 1 and the distinguished history of the word as described above.

[Perry Lassiter]

Your comments remind us again of the importance of connotations his well as denotations. I first learned this as a child. I had read a Dave Dawson book with the line: he was no novice and stuck to his guns. Having been taught to guess at new words, I interpreted it as synonymous with slouch. Later, at someone else's house I first heard Jose Iturbe playing piano. I commented, "That guy is no novice." The man of the house (an uncle?) disagreed and said he was relatively new to the entertainment actually scene. But is just the first one I remember. There have been many others – multiple if you add in the ones I incorrectly pronounced mentally while reading.

[bamaboy56]

I was wondering about Meaning #1. Does this mean that in ancient Greece you were not considered a Greek citizen until you completed military training or you could not be considered a citizen of Athens until you completed military training? Just wondering.