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ἀργός

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ἀργός1 shining, swift

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ar.ɡós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /arˈɣos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /arˈɣos/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓ργός (argós) m (feminine ᾰ̓ργή, neuter ᾰ̓ργόν); first/second declension[1] Mycenaean po-da-ko, Podargos “Swift-foot”, is the name of an ox.[2][3]

Etymology

The adjective meaning “shining, swift” comes by dissimilation from an older *ἀργρός (*argrós),[2][4][1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵ-ró-, from the root *h₂erǵ- (“white, bright”).[3][1][2] Wackernagel saw that it matches Sanskrit ऋज्र (ṛjrá-, “shining; swift”), and that the compound form ἀργι- (argi-) matches the first member of ऋजिप्य (ṛjipyá-), an epithet of the eagle.[2][4] Like ἀργός, the Sanskrit adjective means both “bright” and “quick”; the two senses probably met in the idea of sparkling, flashing movement.[2][4][5] Some scholars prefer to explain the two senses by two separate roots.[4]

Other formations of the root are ἄργυρος (árguros, “silver”), Latin argentum (“silver”), Sanskrit अर्जुन (árjuna-, “white, light”), Tocharian A ārki (“white”) and Hittite ḫarki- (“white, bright”).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it describes the sleek, glistening oxen of the Iliad and a white goose in the Odyssey, but mostly hounds, which are “swift”, often πόδας ἀργοί “swift-footed”.[6][5][7]

Semantic evolution

LSJ explains the sense “swift” from the flickering light that all quick motion seems to give off.[5] With a shifted accent it became the name of Odysseus' dog Ἄργος (Árgos), “Swift-foot”, and of the mythical ship Ἀργώ (Argṓ).[2][5] The adjective itself is rare after Homer: Aristotle uses it for “white”, and Callimachus for the bright north wind.[5][7] The root lived on in compounds in ἀργι- and in ἐναργής (enargḗs) “clear”.[2]

Modern Greek αργός (argós) continues the other ἀργός, “idle”.[8]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for glistening oxen, a white goose and swift hounds.[6][5]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus names the herdsman Argus, whose name LSJ explains as “bright-eyed”.[5]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for “white”.[5][9]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it of the bright north wind.[7]
  • 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus uses it of swift dogs.[5][9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Shining, glistening, sleek; white.[5][7][6]
  2. Of dogs, swift; πόδας ἀργοί, swift-footed.[5][7][6]

Word family

  • ἀργεννός (argennós)
  • ἀργιόδους (argiódous)
  • ἐναργής (enargḗs)
  • πόδαργος (pódargos)
  • πύγαργος (pū́gargos)

ἀργός2 idle

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /aːr.ɡós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /arˈɣos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /arˈɣos/[1]

Forms

ᾱ̓ργός (ārgós) m (feminine ᾱ̓ργή, neuter ᾱ̓ργόν); first/second declension[1] Epic and Ionic ἀεργός (aergós).[9][7] Later also with a feminine in -ή.[5][9]

Etymology

The adjective meaning “idle” is a contraction of ἀεργός (aergós), from Ancient Greek ἀ- (a-) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”), with the negative prefix.[2][5][9][1] The contraction gives it a long /aː/, unlike the other ἀργός.[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use is in Theognis (6th century BC), of the past, which cannot be made “undone”, ἀργόν.[9][5]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus uses it of people who do not work the land, Sophocles of an idler as opposed to a worker, and Plato of idle desires.[5][7] It also describes land lying fallow, money that brings no return and time that bears no fruit.[5][7] In the passive sense it is “unworked”: an unfinished joint in a 5th-century BC inscription, unground grain, unpolished stone.[5][9][7] In Chrysippus, ἀργὸς λόγος “the lazy argument” is the name of a sophism.[5]

The New Testament uses it of people standing unemployed in the marketplace, of idle widows, and of an idle word or an ineffective faith.[10][11] Medieval Greek added the sense “slow”, now the main one in Modern Greek αργός (argós); its use for slow development is a semantic loan from French lent, and for crude oil from English crude.[8]

Timeline

  • 6th century BC – Theognis uses it for “undone”: what is past cannot be made undone.[9][5]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of those who do not work the land;[5] Sophocles of an idler.[5][7]
  • 5th century BC – An Attic inscription uses it of an unfinished joint in masonry.[9][5]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato writes of idle desires;[5] Isocrates and Xenophon of fallow land.[5]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses a separate feminine form.[5][7]
  • 3rd century BC – Chrysippus' sophism is called the “lazy argument”.[5]
  • Medieval Greek – It takes on the sense “slow”.[8]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek αργός (argós) means slow and idle, and of land fallow.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not working; idle, lazy; of the well-born, leisured.[7][5][7]
  2. Free from (a task or activity), with the genitive.[5][7]
  3. Of land, fallow; of money, assets or time, unproductive, fruitless.[5][7]
  4. Of weapons, ineffective.[7]
  5. (passive) Unworked, unprepared, unpolished.[5][9]
  6. (passive) Not done, left undone; unattempted.[5][9]
  7. (New Testament) Unemployed; useless, ineffective.[10][11]

Word family

Usage notes

Abbott-Smith sets it beside βραδύς (bradús) “slow” and νωθρός (nōthrós) “sluggish”.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ a b c Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 q Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b c d Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  10. ^ a b 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 c Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark