ἄρκτος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /árk.tos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈark.tos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈark.tos/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓́ρκτος (árktos) f (genitive ᾰ̓́ρκτου); second declension^[1] Later ἄρκος (árkos) (Septuagint), with the cluster simplified.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *árktos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”), the old Indo-European name of the bear.^[2][1][3][4] Cognate with Sanskrit ऋक्ष (ṛ́kṣa-), Avestan arša-, Old Armenian արջ (arǰ), Latin ursus, Middle Irish art, Welsh arth and Albanian ari, all meaning “bear”, and probably with Hittite ḫartagga- (“a wild animal”), which supports a reconstruction with an initial laryngeal.^[2][1] In the Germanic and Balto-Slavic languages taboo replaced the old word with substitutes.^[4] The DGE tentatively connects it with a root meaning “to tear”, as in ἐρέχθω (erékhthō).^[5]

The sense “north” comes from the constellation of the Great Bear, which lies in the northern sky.^[1][6] Ancient etymologists derived the animal's name from ἀρκέω (arkéō, “to suffice”), because the bear was said to live through the winter on nothing, or from ἀργός (argós, “idle”) or ἀλκή (alkḗ, “strength”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has it both for the animal and for the constellation: the Iliad names the Bear, “which they also call the Wagon”, and the Odyssey uses it for the animal.^[8][6][9]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus uses it for the animal, Isocrates and Theocritus mention tame bears, and Callimachus uses it of Callisto.^[6][10] From the constellation the word came to mean “the north”, as in Herodotus, Euripides and Aeschines, and Aristotle calls the south pole “the other bear”.^[6] At Athens the girls who served Artemis of Brauron were called “bears”, as in Aristophanes' Lysistrata.^[6][10] Aristotle also uses it for a kind of crab.^[6][2]

The derivative ἀρκτικός (arktikós, “northern”) passed through Latin arcticus into English arctic (late 14th century),^[11] and Latin borrowed the noun itself as arctus.^[1] In Modern Greek the animal is αρκούδα (arkoúda), a reshaped form, and άρκτος (árktos) is a learned borrowing of the ancient word and of the constellation's name.^[1][12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad names the constellation of the Bear, and the Odyssey the animal.^[8][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of bears and of the north.^[6][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes refers to the girls called “bears” in the service of Artemis.^[6][10][5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a kind of crab, and its derivative ἀρκτικός means “northern”.^[6][2][5]
• Septuagint – The form ἄρκος appears.^[2]
• Late 14th century – English arctic appears, from the Greek derivative through Latin.^[11]
• Modern Greek – The animal is αρκούδα; άρκτος is the learned word.^[1][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bear, especially the brown bear; a she-bear.^[6][10]
2. The constellation of the Great Bear, Ursa Major.^[6][8]
3. The north.^[6]
4. At Athens, a girl in the service of Artemis of Brauron.^[6][10]
5. A kind of crab.^[6]

Word family

• ἄρκιον (árkion)
• ἄρκτειος (árkteios)
• ἀρκτικός (arktikós)
• Ἀρκτοῦρος (Arktoûros)
• ἀρκτῷος (arktôios)

Related words

• Latin ursus
• English arctic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
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 d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki