ἀγκών

Forms

ᾰ̓γκών (ankṓn) m (genitive ᾰ̓γκῶνος); third declension^[1] Dative plural ἀγκώνεσσι (Pindar), late ἀγκάσι.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂enk- (“to bend”), with a suffix in *-n- and the long o-vowel generalised through the word.^[3][4][5] The root is widespread: Sanskrit अञ्चति (áñcati, “to bend, curve”), Latin uncus (“hooked”) and ancus belong to it, and Greek has many words from it, among them ἄγκος (ánkos, “mountain glen”), ἀγκύλος (ankúlos, “curved”), ἀγκάλη (ankálē, “bent arm”) and ὄγκος (ónkos, “barb”).^[3][4][5] Beekes does not count ἄγκυρα (ánkura, “anchor”) among them, taking it as a substrate word.^[3]

The DGE also compares Hittite ḫenk- (“to bow”), but Beekes, following Kloekhorst, keeps the Hittite verb apart.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the bend of the arm, the elbow: a warrior is struck on the elbow, a man raises himself on his elbow, and in the Odyssey one man nudges another with his elbow.^[6][7] The Iliad also uses it once for an angle of the wall of Troy.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Lyric and tragedy use it, often in the plural, for the arms in an embrace: Pindar speaks of falling into the arms of Victory, and Sophocles of clasping someone in one's arms.^[7][2] It was used of many bends: Herodotus calls a bend of the Nile and of a city wall an ἀγκών, Xenophon a joint in a hound's leg, and Apollonius of Rhodes a bend in a coastline or a headland.^[7][2] Technical writers used it for the arms of a lyre, a torsion catapult or a throne.^[7] Plato quotes the proverb “sweet bend”, said of something that means the opposite of what it says.^[2][7]

Medieval Greek made from the accusative the new form Byzantine Greek αγκώνας (ankónas), which Modern Greek keeps as αγκώνας (agkónas), “elbow”.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 700s BC – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the elbow and for an angle of a wall.^[6][7]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it for the arm.^[2][10]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the plural for arms that embrace.^[7][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a bend of the Nile and of a wall.^[7][2]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it for a bend of the coast and a headland.^[2]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek has the form αγκώνας (ankónas).^[8][9]
• Modern Greek – αγκώνας (agkónas) is the ordinary word for the elbow.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The bend of the arm, the elbow.^[7][2][6]
2. The arm, especially bent in an embrace; in the plural, the arms.^[7][2]
3. A bend in an animal's leg.^[7][2]
4. An angle or bend, as of a wall; a bend of a river.^[7][2]
5. A bend in a coastline, a headland or a bay.^[7][2]
6. Technical uses: the arm of a lyre, of a catapult or of a throne.^[7]
7. A kind of vase.^[7]
8. (proverb) γλυκὺς ἀγκών, “sweet bend”, of something meant in the opposite sense.^[7][2]

Word family

• ἀγκωνίζω (ankōnízō)

Related words

• ἄγκος (ánkos)
• ἀγκύλος (ankúlos)
• ἀγκάλη (ankálē)
• ὄγκος (ónkos)
• Latin uncus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b c d 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 k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter