Etymologically
Log in

ἄγρα

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 29 October 2026 at 20:12. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /á.ɡraː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈa.ɣra/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈa.ɣra/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓́γρᾱ (ágrā) f (genitive ᾰ̓́γρᾱς); first declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2] The NIL lists it, with a query, under the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”), as a feminine *h₂áǵ-reh₂- beside ἀγρός (agrós, “field”), and Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵro- (“hunt”).[3][1] The cognates proposed are Old Irish ár (“slaughter, defeat”), aer (“battle”) and an Avestan epithet of a she-wolf whose meaning is uncertain.[2][3] Chantraine rejects them because none of them has the concrete sense of “catching” found in Greek.[2][3]

How the noun relates to the verb ἀγρέω (agréō, “to seize”) is unclear: the verb looks like a denominative, but its stem ends in /e/, not /ē/, which speaks against this.[4][2][5] McKenzie separated them, putting the noun and ἀγρεύς (agreús, “hunter”) with the word for the field, and the verb with ἀγείρω (ageírō, “to gather”), which Frisk finds unconvincing.[2][5] Furnée held the verb to be a substrate word because of variants such as Thessalian ⟨αγγρε-⟩, and Beekes leaves a Pre-Greek origin open.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Odyssey, meaning hunting or fishing: Odysseus' starving men take to the chase, and men are said to rejoice in the hunt.[6][7][8] The Iliad does not have it.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Hesiod it already means what is caught, the prey or the catch, and both senses, the hunt and the game, continue in poetry, Herodotus and Plato.[6][7][4] Pindar and Herodotus use it of a way of catching, and Aeschylus calls a captured city the “prey of the spear”.[6][7] Plato speaks of the hunting of men, and Polybius uses it of a hunting-ground.[6][7] As the second part of compounds it names gripping tools such as πυράγρα (purágra) “fire-tongs” and κρεάγρα (kreágra) “flesh-hook”, and diseases that seize a limb, like ποδάγρα (podágra) “gout”.[4][9] At Athens Ἄγρα was a title of Artemis, and inscriptions name mysteries held “at Agra's”.[6]

In the New Testament it is the catch of fish in Luke's story of the miraculous draught.[10][6] It survives as Modern Greek άγρα (ágra), a learned word for a persistent hunt, chiefly in the phrase “in search of” customers or votes.[11]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey uses it of hunting and fishing.[6][8]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of the catch or prey.[6][7]
  • 5th century BC – Pindar and Herodotus use it of a way of catching, Aeschylus of a captured city.[6][7]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato speaks of the hunting of men and names Artemis Agra.[6]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of a hunting-ground.[7]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospel of Luke uses it of a catch of fish.[10][6]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word, chiefly in the phrase for a hunt for customers or votes.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Hunting, the chase, or fishing; with a genitive, the hunt for something.[6][7]
  2. A way of catching.[6][7]
  3. What is caught: prey, game, a catch of fish; figuratively, a captured person or city.[6][7][10]
  4. A hunting-ground.[7]
  5. (as a proper noun, Ἄγρα) A title of Artemis at Athens.[6]

Word family

  • ἄγρευμα (ágreuma)
  • ἀγρεύς (agreús)
  • ἀγρεύω (agreúō)
  • ἀγρέω (agréō)
  • ἀγρώσσω (agrṓssō)
  • ἀναγρία (anagría)
  • ἀνδράγρια (andrágria)
  • πυράγρα (purágra)
  • κρεάγρα (kreágra)
  • ποδάγρα (podágra)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki