μοιχός

Forms

μοιχός (moikhós) m (genitive μοιχοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is usually analysed as an agent noun from Ancient Greek ὀμείχω (omeíkhō, “to urinate”), with the suffix -ός (-ós), used as a vulgar expression,^[2][3][1] from Proto-Indo-European *h₃meiǵʰ- (“to urinate”).^[2][4] The noun has no initial vowel: the laryngeal is usually assumed not to have produced a vowel before a resonant followed by an o-grade root (the Saussure effect).^[2][3] Chantraine finds nothing surprising in a vulgar word from a verb meaning “to urinate” for an adulterer, recalling with Wackernagel the use of Latin meiō in Horace: in a society ruled by the head of the family, a contemptuous term was used for the man who seduced a wife.^[3] Beekes notes the other view, that the link between adultery and urinating is not specific enough and the etymology should be abandoned.^[2]

Latin borrowed it as moechus.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Hipponax, in the 6th century BC, for an adulterer or paramour.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Ionic and Attic it is the man who seduces a married woman, in Aristophanes, Plato, Xenophon, the orators and Aristotle.^[3][8][7] In the Acharnians Aristophanes mentions a man with his head shaven close with a razor, the punishment for one caught in adultery.^[7] A papyrus of the 3rd or 4th century AD uses it of a male lover.^[7]

The New Testament lists the adulterer beside other sinners, and the Letter of James uses it of those unfaithful to God; the same extension to “idolater” is found in the related verbs.^[6][3][2] The feminine μοιχαλίς (moikhalís) belongs to the Septuagint and the New Testament.^[3][2]

In Modern Greek μοιχός (moichós) is a learned word taken from the ancient one.^[9]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Hipponax uses it for an adulterer.^[6][7][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes mentions the shaven head of a man caught in adultery.^[7][8][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it in the Symposium.^[7][10]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for adulterers and, figuratively, for those unfaithful to God.^[6][7]
• 3rd–4th century AD – A papyrus uses it of a male lover.^[7]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An adulterer: a man who seduces another man's wife; an illicit lover, a seducer.^[7][8][3]
2. Generally, a paramour; in a papyrus, a male lover.^[7]
3. (New Testament) One who is unfaithful to God, an idolater.^[6][7][2]

Word family

• μοιχεύω (moikheúō)
• μοιχεία (moikheía)
• μοιχεύτρια (moikheútria)
• μοιχαλίς (moikhalís)
• μοιχίδιος (moikhídios)
• μοιχάγρια (moikhágria)

Related words

• ὀμείχω (omeíkhō)
• Latin moechus

Usage notes

The comic poets record proverbial phrases: Apollodorus of Carystus speaks of a door through which neither a weasel nor an adulterer can get in, and Philonides of “adulterers' oaths”.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge