🔼The name Nicanor: Summary
- Meaning
- Man Of Victory, Victory Of Man
- Etymology
- From (1) νικη (nike), victory, and (2) ανδρος (andros), of man.
🔼The name Nicanor in the Bible
The name Nicanor occurs only once in the Bible. It belongs to one of the seven men selected to wait on the tables of the Greek members of the early church (Acts 6:5).
For some reason the Hebrews and the Hellenistic Jews were seated separately, and the widows of the Greeks didn't get anything. The reason for this was that the twelve rather dispensed the Word than to worry about the distribution of food (Acts 6:2).
The twelve disciples told the Greeks to select among them men full of the Spirit and wisdom (and the reader may wonder whether the disciples were being facetious) so that they could understand where the bananas went. One of the waiters was the famous Stephen, who would be martyred. Another one was Nicanor.
🔼Etymology of the name Nicanor
The etymology of the name Nicanor is not very well understood, but it has been proposed that it is a relatively modern contraction of the much older name Nicandor, and Nicandor is a compound of two elements. The first part of our name comes from the noun νικη (nike), meaning victory:
νικη
The noun νικη (nike) means victory. It comes with the verb νικαω (nikao), to be victorious.
The second part of Nicandor and thus probably also of Nicanor, is the familiar noun ανδρος (andros), the genitive form of the word ανηρ (aner), meaning man:
ανηρ ανδρος
The noun ανηρ (aner) refers to a human male individual or husband. Its genitive form is the familiar word ανδρος (andros), which means "of (a) man" or "manly."
Verb ανδριζω (andrizo) means to behave manly (i.e. maturely or courageously). Noun ανδραποδιστης (andrapodistes), means man-stealer, and noun ανδροφονος (androphonos), meaning manslayer. Adjective υπανδρος (hupandros), meaning "under a husband," i.e. married. The adjective φιλανδρος (philandros), means friendly toward men or husband(s).
ανθρωπος
Noun ανθρωπος (anthropos) denotes man as in mankind. Adjective ανθρωπινος (anthropinos) means human or belonging to mankind and adjective ανθρωπαρεκος (anthropareskos) means pleaser of man(kind). Noun ανθροποκτονος (anthropoktonos) means human-slayer, and the familiar noun φιλανθρωπια (philanthropia) denotes the love for mankind. Its associated adverb φιλανθρωπως (philanthropos) means humanely.
🔼Nicanor meaning
The name Nicanor would literally mean Man Of Victory. For a meaning of the name Nicanor, NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Victorious and Spiros Zodhiates (The Complete Wordstudy Dictionary) proposes Conqueror.