Etymologically
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ἐπίκουρος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /e.pí.kuː.ros/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /eˈpi.ku.ros/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /eˈpi.ku.ros/[1]

Forms

ἐπίκουρος (epíkouros) m or f (neuter ἐπίκουρον); second declension[1] Mycenaean Greek e-pi-ko-wo, read as ἐπίκορϝοις.[2][3]

Etymology

The word is completely isolated in Greek.[4][5] It probably stands for from Ancient Greek *ἐπίκορσος (*epíkorsos), formed with ἐπί (epí) “upon, to” from a verb that Greek lost and that survives with the zero grade in Latin currō (“to run”), from Proto-Indo-European *kr̥s-e-;[4][5][6][1] the military sense would then be “one who runs to help”.[3] Related is the Celtic word for “wagon”, Old Irish carr, from which comes carrus.[4][6]

Babiniotis gives another view, which starts from Mycenaean Greek e-pi-ko-wo: a compound with κοῦρος (koûros) “young man”, so originally “a young man in the stage of growth”, from a root *ker- (“to grow”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is found only in the Iliad, mostly in the plural for the foreign allies of Troy: Τρῶες … ἠδ’ ἐπίκουροι, “the Trojans and their allies”.[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word was military at first.[5] In Herodotus and Thucydides the ἐπίκουροι are auxiliaries, usually hired: mercenaries as opposed to citizen soldiers, and the bodyguards of tyrants.[7][8] In Plato's Republic they are one of the three classes of the ideal city, the soldiers who assist the rulers.[7][8] From the Iliad on it was also an adjective, “helping”, and a general word for a helper or protector, a god or Eros, or an avenger of the dead in tragedy.[7][8]

Modern Greek επίκουρος (epíkouros) is learned, “assistant”, and επίκουρος καθηγητής is a calque of English assistant professor.[10][3]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for the allies of Troy.[7][9]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony has it in the plural.[9][11]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it as an adjective, “coming to help”.[7][11]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for mercenaries and tyrants' bodyguards.[7][8][11]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato's Republic names the class of auxiliaries with it.[7][8][11]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek επίκουρος (epíkouros) means “assistant”.[10][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A helper, supporter, ally; in the plural, allied troops.[7][8]
  2. (plural) Auxiliaries, mercenaries; the bodyguard of a tyrant.[7][8]
  3. (plural, in Plato) The auxiliaries, the military class of the ideal city.[7][8]
  4. A helper or protector in general.[8][7]
  5. An avenger (of a dead person).[8]

Adjective

  1. Helping, assisting, with a dative of the person helped.[7][8]
  2. Giving help against something, with a genitive.[8]

Word family

  • ἐπικουρέω (epikouréō)
  • ἐπικούρημα (epikoúrēma)
  • ἐπικούρησις (epikoúrēsis)
  • ἐπικουρητικός (epikourētikós)
  • ἐπικουρία (epikouríā)
  • ἐπικουρικός (epikourikós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
  3. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  4. ^ a b c 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge