Etymologically
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ἔοικα

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /é.oi̯.ka/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈe.y.ka/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈe.y.ka/[1]

Forms

ἔοικᾰ (éoika) [1]

Etymology

It is an old intransitive perfect with present meaning, *ϝέϝοικα (*wéwoika), dual *ϝέϝικτον (*wéwikton), pluperfect *ἐϝεϝοίκει (*ewewoíkei) (whence ἐῴκει (eṓikei)); the metre of Homer shows the lost /w/.[2][3] Ionic οἶκα (oîka) arose from it by the loss of a vowel.[2][4]

The root is perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *weyk- (“to be fitting, become equal”), but there are no certain cognates outside Greek.[2][1] The comparison with Lithuanian į-vỹkti (“to occur, happen”) and pavéikslas (“example”) is doubtful, and Wiktionary thinks the Lithuanian word belongs to a separate root meaning “to overcome”.[2][1]

Greek built new verbs on the perfect: *ϝεϝίκσκω (*wewíkskō) gave ἐΐσκω (eḯskō) “to liken”, and *ϝεϝικάζω (*wewikázō) gave Homeric and later εἰκάζω (eikázō) “to compare, guess”.[2][3] The noun εἰκών (eikṓn) “likeness” has no reduplication.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it means “to be like, look like” someone in form, size or voice, and its participle ἐοικώς (eoikṓs) “like” is frequent.[4][5][6] The impersonal use “it is fitting”, usually negated, is also Homeric: “it is not possible, nor is it fitting, to refuse”.[4][6]

Semantic evolution

From “resembling” came “seeming”: with an infinitive or a participle, a person “seems” to do something, and the parenthetic “as it seems” (Ionic “as it seems” with οἶκε (oîke)) became common in Herodotus, Sophocles and Euripides.[4][6] Plato used “as it seems” to soften a statement, almost “probably, I think”.[4]

The neuter participle εἰκός (eikós) became a word of its own: “fitting, reasonable”, and then “likely, probable”; in Herodotus, Thucydides, Plato and Aristotle it is “probability”, and in Aristotle a probable proposition as opposed to a fact.[6][4] Plotinus used the verb for being analogous to something.[4]

In the New Testament the Letter of James compares the doubter to a wave of the sea and the hearer who does not act to a man looking in a mirror.[7]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for “to be like” and, impersonally, “it is fitting”.[4][5]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the Ionic forms οἶκα (oîka) and οἰκώς (oikṓs).[4][6][8]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses “as it seems” in dialogue.[4][8]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses “as it seems” to soften his statements.[4][8]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the neuter participle for a probable proposition.[6][8]
  • 1st century AD – The Letter of James uses it for “to resemble”.[7]
  • 3rd century AD – Plotinus uses it for “to be analogous to”.[4][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be like, resemble, look like someone or something (with a dative).[4][6]
  2. To seem (with an infinitive or participle); ὡς ἔοικε, “as it seems”.[4][6]
  3. (impersonal) It is fitting, seemly, reasonable (often negated).[4][6]
  4. To befit someone.[6][4]
  5. (participle) Like, fitting or suitable, and in the neuter likely, probable.[6][4]

Word family

  • ἐπέοικα (epéoika)
  • εἰκός (eikós)
  • εἰκάζω (eikázō)
  • ἐΐσκω (eḯskō)
  • εἰκών (eikṓn)
  • ἐπιεικής (epieikḗs)
  • ἴκελος (íkelos)

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. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ a b 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
  8. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge