ἔμπορος

Forms

ἔμπορος (émporos) m (genitive ἐμπόρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ἐν πόρῳ (en pórōi, “on a journey”), a phrase made into a single word (a hypostasis), meaning “one who is in transit”.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary analyses it as from Ancient Greek ἐν- (en-) + πόρος (póros, “journey”).^[1] Chantraine and Babiniotis explain the first sense: the ἔμπορος crossed the sea on a ship he did not own, as a passenger.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it means a passenger on someone else's ship: a speaker says he will go as one because he has no ship or rowers of his own, and a newcomer is asked whether he came as a passenger on another man's ship.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Aeschylus, Bacchylides, Sophocles and Euripides it is any traveller, including one on foot.^[5][2] From Ionic and Attic prose on, it usually means a merchant, above all one who carried goods by sea in another man's ship.^[2][3][5] Plato and Aristotle set the ἔμπορος, a wholesale trader between cities, against the κάπηλος (kápēlos), the local retailer, and Xenophon and Lysias against the ναύκληρος (naúklēros), the shipowner.^[5][6] Hellenistic inscriptions and papyri name associations of merchants and shippers, traders in grain, oil and wine, and caravan traders crossing the desert to Palmyra and Bostra.^[5] The New Testament uses it for merchants in the Revelation of John.^[6]

The Latin emporos was borrowed from it,^[7] and the English word emporium comes, through Latin, from its derivative ἐμπόριον (empórion) “trading place”.^[8] Medieval Greek kept the word in the same sense, and Modern Greek έμπορος (émboros) is still the Modern Greek word for a merchant, used without change for a woman.^[9][10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for a passenger travelling on another's ship.^[5][11]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for a traveller, and Bacchylides for a wanderer going to a foreign land.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for a merchant shipping goods.^[5][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato distinguishes the merchant from the retailer.^[5][6]
• 3rd century BC – Papyri from Egypt name merchants importing foreign oil.^[5]
• 1st century AD – The Revelation of John uses it for merchants.^[6]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek έμπορος (émboros) means a merchant or trader.^[10][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A passenger on a ship that is not one's own.^[5][2]
2. A traveller, also one on foot.^[5][2]
3. (figurative) One who travels through something, as through misfortunes.^[5]
4. A merchant, especially a wholesale trader who imports and exports by sea, as opposed to the shopkeeper and the shipowner.^[5][6][3]
5. (with a genitive) A dealer in a particular good.^[5]

Word family

• ἐμπορεύομαι (emporeúomai)
• ἐμπορευτικός (emporeutikós)
• ἐμπορία (emporíā)
• ἐμπορικός (emporikós)
• ἐμπόριον (empórion)

Related words

• πόρος (póros)
• Latin emporos
• English emporium

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 d 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
4. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 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
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux