οὖς

Forms

οὖς (oûs) n (genitive ὠτός or οὔᾰτος); third declension^[1] Epic and lyric οὖας, genitive οὔατος;^[2][3] Hellenistic and Doric ὦς; a Tarentine gloss ἆτα “ears” in Hesychius.^[2][3][4] Mycenaean Greek a-no-wo-to /an-ōwotos/ “without handles”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews- (“ear”);^[2][5] the nominative, like that of βοῦς (boûs), can be derived from a form *Hōus, and the oblique stem ὠτ- from a lengthened *h₂ows-n̥t-.^[2][1] The colour of the initial laryngeal is fixed by Latin auris and auscultō (“to listen”), which continue an e-grade *h₂eus-; that grade may also be in the Tarentine gloss ἆτα (âta) and is certainly in παρειά (pareiá, “cheek”).^[2] Some scholars think the o-vowel of οὖς was taken over from the word for “eye”.^[2] The Old Attic spelling ⟨ΟΣ⟩ cannot hold an inherited diphthong /ou/ and seems to point to a contraction of *ōwo-.^[2]

Cognate with Old English ēare (English ear), Lithuanian ausìs, Old Church Slavonic оухо (uxo) and Old Irish áu.^[1][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets have it in compounds describing vessels by their handles, such as Mycenaean Greek a-no-wo-to “without handles”.^[2][5] In the Iliad it is the ear of a man or an animal, and also the handle of a cup: a cup with four “ears” is described (11.633).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The ear is the organ of hearing, attention and understanding;^[3] Heraclitus and Herodotus call it untrustworthy, and it receives whispered or confidential words.^[3] Xenophon and Aristotle use “ear” of an officer serving a ruler, especially the Persian king.^[3] Polybius records the proverb “they had caught the wolf by the ears”, of a dangerous undertaking.^[3] By resemblance it named the handle of a vessel, a kind of shellfish, and in medicine the auricles of the heart.^[4]

The Septuagint has it about 190 times, often in phrases such as “in your ears”, “in your hearing”;^[6] in the New Testament it is the bodily ear, as in the right ear of Luke 22:50.^[7] Modern Greek keeps ους (ous) as a learned word, in set phrases;^[8] the everyday word for “ear” is αυτί (aftí), which IE-CoR places in the same cognate set.^[5]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – Linear B tablets describe vessels with compounds of it.^[2][5]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the ear and for the handle of a cup.^[3][4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus speaks of the ears as not to be trusted.^[3][9]
• 5th century BC – Hippocratic writers name the auricles of the heart “ears”.^[4][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses “ear” of an officer serving a ruler.^[3][9]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius has the proverb of catching the wolf by the ears.^[3][9]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned ους; the common word is αυτί.^[8][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The ear of a person or an animal.^[3][4]
2. The ear as the organ of hearing, attention and understanding.^[3]
3. A person who acts as an ear for another; an officer of a ruler, especially of the Persian king.^[3]
4. A handle of a cup, pitcher or cauldron.^[3][4]
5. (medicine, plural) The auricles of the heart.^[4]
6. A kind of shellfish (οὖς θαλάττιον, “sea ear”).^[4]

Word family

• οὐατόεις (ouatóeis)
• ὠτακουστέω (ōtakoustéō)
• ὠτακουστής (ōtakoustḗs)
• ὠτάριον (ōtárion)
• ὠτίον (ōtíon)
• ὠτίς (ōtís)
• ὠτώεις (ōtṓeis)
• οὐάτιον (ouátion)
• ὠταρᾶς (ōtarâs)
• ὠτεγχύτης (ōtenkhútēs)
• ὠτικός (ōtikós)
• ὠτιοφόρος (ōtiophóros)
• ὠτογλυφίς (ōtogluphís)
• ὦτος (ôtos)

Related words

• παρειά (pareiá)
• Latin auris
• English ear

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 h i j k l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge