Greek word · G120

ἀθυμέω

athymeō

be discouraged

Built from a- ("without") and thymos (spirit, passion, courage, drive). It means to lose heart, be dispirited, despondent, or downcast. In some contexts it means to be distressed or vexed. The related noun athymia is used of an army that has lost its will to fight.

Appears once in the Greek New Testament. · Updated October 21, 2026

What it means

ἀθυμέω, -ῶ (ἄ-θυμος, without heart),

[in LXX for חרה, etc. ;]

to be disheartened: Colossians 3:21.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Colossians 3:21

Range of meaning: Built from a- ("without") and thymos (spirit, passion, courage, drive). It means to lose heart, be dispirited, despondent, or downcast. In some contexts it means to be distressed or vexed. The related noun athymia is used of an army that has lost its will to fight.
Against the English: "Discouraged" in everyday English is often mild: briefly let down or disappointed. The Greek describes something deeper and longer-lasting, an inner deflation in which the child stops trying. NASB's "lose heart" and the Vulgate's pusillo animo ("small-spirited, faint-hearted") capture it better.
How it drifted: English "discourage" once meant literally to strip someone of courage (from Old French descoragier, to take the heart out of). Today it has weakened into "dishearten a little" or "advise against." The original strength has faded.
Used elsewhere in the period: Used in Greek historians such as Thucydides and in Josephus for people or troops losing heart. In the Greek Old Testament it translates the distress of Samuel (1 Samuel 15:11) and of David (2 Samuel 6:8), and Judith 7:22 uses it of children growing faint during a siege. J. B. Lightfoot's classic commentary paraphrased it as children who "go about their task in a listless, moody, sullen frame of mind."

Where it appears

Colossians · 1

Colossians 3:21 ἀθυμῶσιν.¶ they may become discouraged.

Fathers, do not provoke your children, so they will not become discouraged.

Here: Literally "to be without thymos" (spirit, drive, inner fire): to lose heart, go listless, give up trying. This is the only place the word appears in the New Testament. The danger Paul names is a child whose spirit has been crushed, not a child who rebels.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.