Etymologically
Log in

ἅρπη

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /hár.pɛː/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈar.pi/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈar.pi/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̔́ρπη (hárpē) f (genitive ᾰ̔́ρπης); first declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.[2][3] The word matches Old Church Slavonic срьпъ (srĭpŭ) and Latvian sirpe, both meaning “sickle”, almost exactly, and Frisk took them to be inherited cognates; he also compared Latin sarpō (“to prune vines”).[4][2] Pokorny groups them under Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“sickle”), extended with -p-.[5] Beekes, following Ernout and Meillet, finds the vowel hard to explain from an Indo-European form and is inclined to see a non-Indo-European word of the European substrate.[2] Wiktionary notes that *sr̥p- would be expected to give Greek ⟨ῥαπ-⟩, not ⟨ἁρπ-⟩.[1]

A Semitic origin, from a word like Biblical Hebrew חֶרֶב (ḥereḇ, “knife, sword”), was proposed in the 19th century and rejected by Frisk and others.[6][4] Many have connected the word with ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to snatch”) and ἅρπαξ (hárpax, “rapacious”).[4][2] Frisk thought ἅρπη or a similar base word could be their source, while Beekes thinks deriving them from ἅρπη improbable.[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its one Homeric use it names a bird of prey: in the Iliad Athena darts down from heaven “like a long-winged, shrill-voiced harpē”.[7][8] Cunliffe and Autenrieth leave the bird unidentified, while LSJ suggests a shearwater.[7][9][8]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod is the first to use it for a sickle, the tool with which Cronus castrates Uranus in the Theogony.[10][11] From this the word passed to the curved sword of Perseus, which Pherecydes and Euripides call by this name.[8][10] Later writers used it for an elephant goad (Aelian), a hippopotamus' tooth (Nicander), a fishing harpoon (Oppian) and a bill-hook (Josephus).[8][10]

Aristotle still uses it for a seabird, and Hesychius records a Cretan form ἅρπης as the name of a kite.[10][2] The Hesychian gloss “wind” is unexplained.[12][10] In the sense of “sickle” the word was replaced by δρέπανον (drépanon), with which Hesychius and the Suda gloss it.[12][13] Latin borrowed it as harpē, the source of Italian and Catalan arpa.[1]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for a bird of prey.[7][8]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for the sickle, both the farmer's and the one Cronus uses on Uranus.[10][8]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for the curved sword of Perseus.[8][10]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle names a seabird harpē.[8][10]
  • 2nd–3rd century AD – Aelian uses it for an elephant goad.[8][10]
  • 3rd–4th century AD – The magical papyri give gods such as Cronus and Harpocrates a sickle under this name.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bird of prey, perhaps a shearwater or the lammergeier.[8][11]
  2. A sickle or scythe.[8][11]
  3. The curved sword of Perseus; a scimitar.[8][10]
  4. An elephant goad.[8][10]
  5. A fishing harpoon.[10]
  6. A bill-hook.[8]
  7. (figurative) A hippopotamus' tooth.[8][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
  4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  6. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
  7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  12. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
  13. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
  14. ^ Muñoz Delgado, Luis (2001), Léxico de magia y religión en los papiros mágicos griegos, Madrid: CSIC