Etymologically
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ἀγείρω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /a.ɡěː.rɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /aˈʝi.ro/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /aˈʝi.ro/[1]

Forms

ἀγείρω (ageírō) [1] Aeolic ἀγέρρω.[2] Aeolic and Boeotian ἀγίρω in an inscription from Acraephia (3rd century BC).[2][3] Mycenaean a-ke-re may belong here.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *agéřřō (“to collect, gather”),[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“to gather”).[4][1] Beekes finds no direct cognates outside Greek but calls the reconstruction unproblematic.[4] Wiktionary compares Sanskrit गण (gaṇá, “flock, troop”), and the DGE Latin grex (“flock”) and Lithuanian gurgulỹs (“knot”).[4][1][3] The LIV lists the root with a question mark and notes that the Greek family splits into “assemble (people)”, as in ἀγορά (agorá), and the more general “take”, as in ἄγρα (ágra, “hunt”).[5] The present continues *h₂gér-ye-.[1]

Within Greek it goes with γέργερα (gérgera, “many”) and γάργαρα (gárgara, “heaps”).[4][6] Chantraine discusses the initial ἀ-: either a prothetic vowel or a copulative prefix.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to gather people together, an army or an assembly; the passive and the aorist ἀγέροντο mean to come together.[2][7] The Odyssey also uses it of collecting goods and of begging food from the suitors.[2]

Semantic evolution

Its main use is epic: to muster an army, to gather a crowd, to collect wealth.[7][2] In the Odyssey and Herodotus it also means to collect by begging, and in Aeschylus and Demosthenes to collect alms or money for the gods; from this sense comes ἀγύρτης (agúrtēs), a begging priest.[2] LSJ calls it rare in good prose.[2]

Aeschylus uses it of accumulating arguments, and a poem in the Greek Anthology of drawing the brows together in a frown.[2] Apollonius of Rhodes revives the epic middle forms.[7]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of gathering an army and an assembly.[2][7][8]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Theogony and the Works and Days.[8][3]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of collecting money by begging.[2][3]
  • 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it of a man who lives by begging.[2][3]
  • 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses the epic middle forms.[7][3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To gather people together; to muster an army.[2][7]
  2. In the passive and the middle, to assemble or come together.[7][2]
  3. To collect things, such as goods or wealth.[2]
  4. To collect by begging; to collect money for the gods.[2]
  5. To accumulate arguments.[2]

Word family

  • ἀγύρτης (agúrtēs)
  • ἄγυρις (águris)
  • συναγείρω (sunageírō)
  • ἀγορά (agorá)
  • γάργαρα (gárgara)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  6. ^ a b 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
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux