Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Metic
/ˈmɛtɪk/noun
A resident foreigner in an ancient Greek city, free but without citizen rights.
The Greek roots
μετά
metá
changed, beyond
οἶκος
oîkos
house, dwelling
Literally: “one who has changed home”
The story of the word
Athens ran on metics. They paid the μετοίκιον, a head tax, needed a citizen sponsor, could not own land or vote, and could be sold into slavery for defaulting. They were also much of the city's commerce and a good deal of its intellectual life: Aristotle lived and taught in Athens as a metic, and so did the orator Lysias, whose family fortune the Thirty Tyrants confiscated. The same οἶκος gives economy and ecology.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
economyecologydioceseparishmetamorphosis
In a sentence
As a metic he could argue a case only through a citizen patron.