Etymologically
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ἄλοχος

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Pronunciation

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

Forms

ᾰ̓́λοχος (álokhos) f (genitive ᾰ̓λόχου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek ἁ- (ha-) + λέχος (lékhos, “bed”), the copulative prefix meaning “together”, so that it first meant “she who shares the bed”.[2][3][4][1] The prefix comes from Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-; its rough breathing was lost by dissimilation before the aspirate of the second syllable.[4][1] The second element has the o-grade of the stem, as in λόχος (lókhos, “lying in wait; childbed”).[1][5] Pokorny compares a Slavic compound of the same make, Proto-Slavic *sǫlogъ.[6]

Ancient writers explained it in two ways: Porphyry took the prefix as negative, “a woman who has not shared another man's bed”,[7] while the Etymologicum Magnum, following Orion, took it as “together”, “she who shares her husband's bed”.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad and the Odyssey it is a man's wife, often his wedded wife (κουριδίη (kouridíē) ἄλοχος).[5][2][4] Once in the Iliad and once in the Odyssey it is used of a concubine.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Homer the wife is set against the concubine (παλλακίς (pallakís)) and named together with the household and its property.[4] The word stayed poetic: Hesiod, elegy, lyric, tragedy and Aristophanes use it,[3][2] and Pindar, Apollonius of Rhodes and Callimachus also use it.[4] Aristotle uses it in the Politics, and it appears in an inscription from Sardis of the 1st or 2nd century BC.[2][4]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a wife and, twice, for a concubine.[5][2]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Theogony and the Works and Days.[9][4]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it in the Persians.[2][4]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it.[2][4]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it in the Politics, and Theodectes speaks of bringing a wife into the house.[2][4]
  • 1st–2nd century BC – An inscription from Sardis uses it.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A wife, a woman who shares a man's bed; a wedded wife.[2][3][4]
  2. A concubine.[2][3]
  • λέχος (lékhos)
  • λόχος (lókhos)
  • ἄκοιτις (ákoitis)

Usage notes

A different word, formed with the negative prefix, is the adjective ἄλοχος “unwedded” or “never having given birth”, which Plato uses of the virgin goddess Artemis in the Theaetetus.[2][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  5. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  8. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux