Everyday LifeGreek → English
Onesimus
/oʊˈnɛsɪməs/noun
A male given name of Greek origin, borne by the runaway slave of Paul's letter to Philemon.
The Greek roots
ὀνήσιμος
onḗsimos
useful, profitable
Literally: “useful one”
Follow a root:ὀνήσιμος1 word
The story of the word
Ὀνήσιμος means useful, from a verb for bringing profit, and it was a stock name for a slave. Paul writes to Philemon about a runaway named Useful and makes the pun on purpose: once useless to you, he says, now useful to both of us. The shortest thing Paul wrote turns almost entirely on a name.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
Same family
Philemon
In a sentence
The letter asks Philemon to take Onesimus back as a brother.
Onesimus is named again in Colossians, this time without explanation.