χορός

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /kʰo.rós/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /xoˈros/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /xoˈros/^[1]

Forms

χορός (khorós) m (genitive χοροῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kʰorós.^[1] Its further origin is disputed, partly because it is not certain whether the original sense was “round dance” or “dancing-place”, so Frisk calls every explanation hypothetical.^[2] A long-standing view connects it with χόρτος (khórtos, “enclosure”) and Latin cohors, from Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to seize, enclose”), with an original sense of an enclosed place or a ring of dancers holding hands;^[2][1] others derive it from a root *ǵʰer- “to yearn for”, that of χαίρω (khaírō, “to rejoice”).^[1] It matches Lithuanian žãras (“row, band”) exactly in form.^[2]

Ancient writers also linked it with joy: Plato in the Laws derives it from χαρά (kharā́, “joy”), and later grammarians from χῶρος (khôros, “place”) or from χείρ (kheír, “hand”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a dance, a dancing-place and a throng of dancers: Paris looks as if he had just left the dance (Iliad 3.394), and the Phaeacians smooth a floor for the dance (Odyssey 8.260).^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

From Pindar and Herodotus on it is a group of dancers and singers performing in honour of a god, and at Athens the chorus of tragedy and comedy and the circular chorus of the dithyramb.^[6][5] Figuratively it meant a row, such as a row of teeth in Aristophanes, a circle of people, a chorus of stars, and in Plato a class of things.^[6]

Latin borrowed it as chorus.^[7] Modern Greek χορός “dance” continues the ancient word, while its senses “chorus, choir” are learned.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a dance and a dancing-place.^[4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for a band of singers and dancers.^[6][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Aristophanes use it for the chorus of a play.^[6][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it figuratively for a class of things.^[6][9]
• Modern Greek – χορός means a dance.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A choral dance, a dance performed by a group.^[6][5]
2. A dancing-ground, dance-floor.^[6][4]
3. A group of dancers or singers, a choir.^[6]
4. The chorus of a drama or of a dithyramb.^[6]
5. (figurative) A row; a circle or band of people; a class of things.^[6]

Word family

• ἄχορος (ákhoros)
• χορεύω (khoreúō)

Related words

• Latin chorus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
4. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge