ἀσιτία
asitía
G776 noun
SILEX Entry
Definition
The state or condition of not eating food, abstention from taking food, especially in the sense of deliberate or involuntary fasting; may denote lack of food intake for religious, ritual, or other purposes, as well as involuntary deprivation.
Semantic Range
non-eating, abstention from food, fasting (voluntary or involuntary), lack of nourishment, starvation, abstemiousness
Root / Etymology
From ἄσιτος (without food, not eating), itself from ἀ- (not) + σῖτος (grain, food). Thus, ἀσιτία signifies the condition or state characterizing being ἄσιτος.
Historical & Contextual Notes
In classical and Hellenistic Greek, ἀσιτία describes the state of not eating, whether from necessity (such as famine or deprivation), choice (as in fasting), or incapacity (illness or grief). By the Koine period and in medical authors, it appears frequently in contexts of both deliberate abstention and pathological inability to eat. In the Septuagint and New Testament, genuine fasting is more often expressed with νηστεία, while ἀσιτία typically refers to involuntary abstinence, but can be synonymous in certain contexts. English translations may use 'abstinence' or 'fasting', but these can obscure whether abstention is voluntary or imposed by circumstance. The term appears rarely in the New Testament and related early Christian literature, being more typical to medical or philosophical texts.
Original Strong's Gloss (1890)
from ἄσιτος; fasting (the state):--abstinence.
Root Family
ἀσιτία (asitía) — non-eating, fasting, lack of nourishment, abstention from food
Word Forms
1 distinct form
| SIDANCE | Surface | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 | Occurrences |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G776-01 |
ἀσιτίας | asitias | N GEN F SG |
abstinence | of fasting | abstinence | 1 |
Occurrences in Scripture
1 occurrence
| SIDANCE | Reference | Word | Transliteration | Morphology | Common | SIBI-P1 | SIBI-P2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G776-01 |
Acts 27:21 | ἀσιτίας | asitias | N GEN F SG |
abstinence | of fasting | abstinence |