χώρα

Forms

χώρᾱ (khṓrā) f (genitive χώρᾱς); first declension^[1] Ionic χώρη (khṓrē).^[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[4][5] Frisk compared the -ρ- of other words for places, such as ἀγρός (agrós) and ἕδρα (hédrā), but there is no match outside Greek.^[4] If the first meaning was “empty space”, it may be connected with χήρα (khḗrā, “widow”) and χῆρος (khêros, “bereft”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave behind”).^[4][5] Chantraine points out that the ρ may belong to the root rather than a suffix, and then χορός (khorós), also a bounded space, would be a better comparison; either way he calls it very uncertain.^[5] Beekes rejects a link with χατέω (khatéō, “to lack”), and Wiktionary notes that older views took it from a Pre-Greek substrate.^[4][1]

Ancient grammarians derived it from the “poured” earth (χέω (khéō, “to pour”)) or from a verb meaning “to give way”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for a space or place: the room between two chariots in a race, and a spot from which someone turns.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

Already in Homer it named a person's place or position, and in Herodotus and later a soldier's post.^[3][2] The sense “land, territory” of a people or ruler appears in Homer and Pindar, and in Thucydides and the Attic orators the χώρα of a city is its countryside as opposed to the town.^[3] Medical writers used it for the socket of a joint, and an inscription from Epidaurus (4th century BC) for the socket of the eye.^[2][4] The Stoics defined it as space partly occupied by a body, as distinct from both the void and mere place.^[2]

In the New Testament it is dry land as opposed to the sea, a region or district, and the countryside.^[8] The modern Modern Greek χώρα (chóra) continues the ancient word; its learned sense “region” is modelled on French région.^[9][10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for space, a place and a person's position.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a soldier's post, and Thucydides for a city's countryside.^[3][2][11]
• 4th century BC – An inscription from Epidaurus uses it for the socket of the eye.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for land, a region and the countryside.^[8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek χώρα (chóra) means country, and also region after French région.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Space, room; the gap between two things.^[3][2]
2. A place, spot, a person's proper place or position, as in κατὰ χώραν μένειν “to stay in place”, said of laws or truces that remain in force.^[3][2]
3. A soldier's post.^[3][2]
4. Land, territory, country of a people or ruler; an estate.^[3]
5. The countryside of a city, as opposed to the town.^[3]
6. (medicine) The socket of a joint or of the eye.^[2]
7. (philosophy) Space partly occupied by a body.^[2]
8. (New Testament) Dry land, as opposed to the sea; a region, district.^[8]

Word family

• χωρίς (khōrís)
• στενόχωρος (stenókhōros)
• χωρεπίσκοπος (khōrepískopos)
• χωρογραφία (khōrographíā)
• χωρογραφικός (khōrographikós)
• χωρογράφος (khōrográphos)
• χωροφύλαξ (khōrophúlax)

Related words

• χῶρος (khôros)
• χήρα (khḗrā)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ a b c 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. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
11. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge