self-designation

Updated: May 18, 2025

Already before this period, therefore, the Italians were so widely acquainted with the Greeks that that name, which early fell into abeyance in Hellas, was retained by them as a collective name for the Greek nation, even when the latter itself adopted other modes of self-designation.

Theodor Mommsen - The History of Rome, Book I : The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy

Already before this period, therefore, the Italians were so widely acquainted with the Greeks that that name, which early fell into abeyance in Hellas, was retained by them as a collective name for the Greek nation, even when the latter itself adopted other modes of self-designation.

Theodor Mommsen - The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5)

There seems but little doubt that "Son of Man," which in Greek is an unintelligible phrase rather than a title, was quite as obscure to the generation of Greek Christians which produced the present gospels as it is to ourselves. It was to them merely the strange self-designation of Jesus.

Kirsopp Lake - Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity