Etymologically
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τυγχάνω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /tyŋ.kʰá.nɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /tyŋˈxa.no/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /tyŋˈxa.no/[1]

Forms

τῠγχᾰ́νω (tunkhánō) [1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *tʰunkʰanō,[1] a nasal present inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewgʰ- (“to hit the mark, meet”), built on the zero grade *dʰu-n-gʰ-.[2][1][3] The present τυγχάνω and the thematic aorist τυχεῖν (tukheîn) keep the older sense “hit, meet”, while the full-grade present τεύχω (teúkhō) from the same root came to mean “make, manufacture”.[2][4] Chantraine calls the link with τεύχω (teúkhō) universally accepted, and explains the sense “reach, meet” by the suffix -άνω (-ánō), which presents an action as aimed at its end.[5] Frisk thinks both paradigms developed independently within Greek from an Indo-European germ that cannot be pinned down.[4]

Cognate with Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌲 (daug, “is fit, is useful”), Old High German toug, Lithuanian daũg (“much”), Russian дюжий (djúžij, “strong, robust”) and Old Irish dúal (“fitting”), and with the stative Sanskrit दुहे (duhé, “gives milk”).[2][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is mostly an aorist and is used of a weapon that reaches its target: an archer “hitting” a man, as opposed to ἁμαρτάνω (hamartánō) “to miss”.[6][5] Homer also uses it for “to happen to be” somewhere and, of things, “to fall to one's lot”.[7][8] The earliest passage in the GLAUx corpus is Iliad 4.106.[9]

Semantic evolution

From “hitting the mark” the verb went two ways: with a genitive, “to meet, come upon” and “to obtain, gain” (of good or bad things alike), and, used intransitively, “to happen, chance”.[8][5] In Classical prose it is very often joined to a participle, τυγχάνω ὤν “I happen to be”, where it means little more than “in fact”.[8][7] The aorist participle ὁ τυχών became “anyone you meet, an ordinary person”, already in Hesiod and later in Plato and Xenophon.[7] From the verb comes τύχη (túkhē) “chance, fortune”.[4]

In the New Testament it means “to obtain, attain” with the genitive and “to happen to be, turn out”.[10] It survives as Modern Greek τυγχάνω (tygcháno), used only in the learned register, mainly impersonally (“it happens that”) and in the phrase ως έτυχε “haphazardly”; the everyday verb is Modern Greek τυχαίνω (tychaíno).[11]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of a weapon that hits its target.[6][9]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony uses the participle ὁ τυχών for “the first person one meets”.[7][12]
  • 6th century BC – Anacreon uses it for succeeding in one's aim.[8][12]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for having a request granted, and with a participle for “happen to be doing”.[8][12]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses ὅ τι ἂν τύχωσι of people who say whatever comes to them.[8][12]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for obtaining something and for “to happen to be”.[10]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as a learned verb, mainly in the impersonal “it happens that”.[11]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To hit the mark (of a weapon or a thrower); with the genitive, to hit someone or something.[8][7]
  2. (figurative) To hit upon the right word, guess a meaning, or meet someone's wishes.[8]
  3. To succeed, achieve one's aim; to have a request granted.[8][7]
  4. To meet, come upon, fall in with (with the genitive).[8][7]
  5. To meet with, suffer (violence, misfortune, death) or obtain, gain (something welcome) (with the genitive).[8][10]
  6. To happen, befall (of events), with the dative of the person affected.[8][7]
  7. To happen to be (somewhere, or such and such); with a participle, to happen to be doing or simply to be doing.[8][7]
  8. (perfect, Homer) Of a headland or rock, to lie, be set.[8]

Word family

  • ἀντιτυγχάνω (antitunkhánō)
  • ἀποτυγχάνω (apotunkhánō)
  • ἐντυγχάνω (entunkhánō)
  • ἐπιτυγχάνω (epitunkhánō)
  • κατατυγχάνω (katatunkhánō)
  • παρατυγχάνω (paratunkhánō)
  • περιτυγχάνω (peritunkhánō)
  • προεντυγχάνω (proentunkhánō)
  • προστυγχάνω (prostunkhánō)
  • προτυγχάνω (protunkhánō)
  • συντυγχάνω (suntunkhánō)
  • ὑποτυγχάνω (hupotunkhánō)
  • διατυγχάνω (diatunkhánō)
  • εὔτυκτος (eútuktos)
  • εὐτυχής (eutukhḗs)
  • τεύχω (teúkhō)
  • τιτύσκω (titúskō)
  • τυκτός (tuktós)
  • τύχη (túkhē)

Usage notes

The aorist participle is used as a noun: ὁ τυχών is “any chance person”, and οὐχ ὁ τυχών ἀνήρ “no ordinary man”.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d 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
  6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  10. ^ a b c 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
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge