Από πού βγαίνει η διαφορά σημασίας κατ' αρχήν–κατ' αρχάς

Καλησπέρα,

τὴν ἀρχήν is the accusative singular of ἀρχήχή while τὰς ἀρχὰς is the accusative plural. Κατά requires accusative when it is not used in the sense of "against", this I understand. I also understand that αρχή, in Modern Greek, has a different meaning, e.g. start, authority, principle, cause.

My question is, how come the plural (κατ' αρχάς) is used to denote the start/beginning meaning, while the singular (κατ' αρχήν) is used for the principle/base meaning?

What makes it stranger for me is that Babiniotis gives a few meanings for αρχή which, he says, are mostly used in the plural form, and yet their meaning is closer to principle/base than start/beginning. For example:

(2nd edition, 2005)
7. οι αρχές της φυσικής, της νομικής, ... (the fundamentals (?) of physics, ...)
8. Ο Σωκράτης προτίμησε να πεθάνει, για να μην προδώσει τις αρχές του. (values, belief, life principles)
9. στα νιάτα μας είχαμε αρχές και σεβόμαστε τους μεγαλυτέρους (principles, values, rules)

Which would lead me to believe that κατ΄αρχάς means κατ' αρχήν and vice-versa :).

Many thanks,
orgyn

Hi, Orgyn.

In ancient Greek you had both the singular and the plural of αρχή for “beginning”, as well as a variety of expressions: κατ’ αρχάς, εν αρχή, εξ αρχής, απ’ αρχής and others. Κατ’ αρχήν is the Greek for the Latin expression “in principio”. Modern Greek uses κατ’ αρχάς or, in one word now, καταρχάς for the meaning “at the beginning”, and κατ’ αρχήν for “in principle”. Many also use κατ’ αρχήν (also spelled καταρχήν) with the same meaning as καταρχάς, which is inevitable seeing that αρχή is “beginning” as well as “principle”. Babiniotis would like us to maintain the difference in meaning between the two expressions, and careful writers probably do.

Hi nickel,

Thanks for the details. However, what I wanted to know is if there's a reason in particular that the acc plural was used with the meaning "begin" and the acc singular with the meaning "principle". Of course, maybe there's no such reason, and "it's just like that". Or is it that κατ' αρχάς was already used in AG and so κατ' αρχήν was then added (when?) to MG with the "principle" meaning?

Thanks :)

Yes. In ancient Greek we had “beginning” expressions with both the singular and the plural, as I said. It so happened that the one with the plural has remained in use to this day and is used along with expressions with singular “αρχή”: εν αρχή (very formal, another ancient Greek expression), στην αρχή, or even αρχή αρχή. Κατ’ αρχήν corresponds to the Latin expression, which also has principle (principio) in the singular. That's all.

Ok, well thanks again :).

It's nice to know this. I've always wondered.