ἔργον

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ér.ɡon/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈer.ɣon/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈer.ɣon/^[1]

Forms

ἔργον (érgon) n (genitive ἔργου); second declension^[1] Doric ϝέργον (wérgon), Elean ϝάργον (wárgon), with the old initial /w/.^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek we-ka-ta /wergatās/ is the plural of the derivative ἐργάτης (ergátēs) “worker”.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *wérgon,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wérǵom (“work”), an old neuter noun.^[2][1] The Greek word is identical with Avestan varəzəm, Old High German werc and Old Norse verk, all meaning “work”; Old Armenian գործ (gorc) has the same formation with a secondary /o/, probably taken from the verb “to work”.^[2][4] It is also cognate with Old English weorc, the source of English work.^[1][3]

The primary verbs of the same root, Proto-Indo-European *werǵ- (“to do, work”), are ἔρδω (érdō) and ῥέζω (rhézō); ὄργανον (órganon) and ὄργια (órgia) are further formations from it.^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Iliad on.^[2] In Homer it is a deed or a task, the work in hand, toil, and above all the work of war; in the plural it also means tilled fields and farms, and women's work at the loom.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod named his Works and Days after it and declared that “work is no disgrace, idleness is a disgrace”.^[3] From Homer on, the deed is set against the word (ἔπος (épos), μῦθος (mûthos)), and Attic writers regularly oppose ἔργῳ (érgōi) “in fact” to λόγῳ (lógōi) “in word”.^[3][7]

Classical Greek also used it for a thing or matter, for the proper task or function of someone or something, and in phrases meaning “there is need of” and “it is hard to”.^[7][3] Concretely it named a piece of handiwork or a building, mine-workings, siege-works (in Polybius) and the profit earned on money.^[7][8] The derivative ἐργαστήριον (ergastḗrion) “workshop” is the source of Latin ergastulum.^[2]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament the works are God's acts of creation and his deeds, and the deeds of people as a sign of their character.^[9][10] Paul speaks of the “works of the law”, and the Letter of James sets works against a faith that is only words.^[9][10][11] Medieval vernacular Greek used it for work, deeds, works of art and writing, and God's creation, and it survives as Modern Greek έργο (érgo).^[12][1] In 1873 the British Association for the Advancement of Science coined the unit of energy English erg from it.^[13]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – the Linear B tablets have Mycenaean Greek we-ka-ta, “workers”, from a derivative.^[2][4]
• Homer – the Iliad uses it for deeds of war, tasks and tilled fields.^[3][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days takes its title from the plural.^[3][14]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses ἐν τῷ ἔργῳ for “during the action” and calls the Persian War the greatest deed of earlier times.^[3][14]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for the profit on money lent.^[8][7][14]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the plural for siege-works.^[7][14]
• 1st century AD – the New Testament contrasts works with faith.^[10][11]
• 1873 – the British Association for the Advancement of Science coins English erg from it.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deed, act or achievement, often opposed to word or speech.^[7][3]
2. Work in hand, a task; especially women's crafts, such as weaving.^[7][3]
3. The activity of working, labour.^[7][6]
4. Work of a particular kind, named by a genitive or adjective: the work of fighting, feasting, love or the sea.^[7][3]
5. (without qualifier) Battle, action in war.^[7][3]
6. A thing, matter, affair.^[7][3]
7. One's proper work or function.^[7]
8. Need or use; with a negative, “there is no need” or “no point” in doing something.^[7][3]
9. A hard task; with ἐστί, “it is difficult” to do something.^[7][8]
10. A piece of handiwork; a building.^[7][3]
11. (plural) Tilled fields, farmland.^[7][3]
12. (plural) Mine-workings; siege-works.^[7]
13. Income or profit on money lent.^[7][8]
14. (New Testament) A deed as showing someone's moral character; the works of the law.^[10][11]

Word family

• ἀργός (argós)
• γεωργός (geōrgós)
• ἑκάεργος (hekáergos)
• ἐνέργεια (enérgeia)
• ἐνεργέω (energéō)
• ἐργάζομαι (ergázomai)
• ἐργαστήριον (ergastḗrion)
• ἐργάτης (ergátēs)
• ἐργώδης (ergṓdēs)
• κακοῦργος (kakoûrgos)
• συνεργός (sunergós)
• ἐνεργής (energḗs)
• ἐργαλεῖον (ergaleîon)

Related words

• ἔρδω (érdō)
• ῥέζω (rhézō)
• -ουργός (-ourgós)
• English synergy
• English erg

Usage notes

The Suda explains the phrase ἔργον εἰπεῖν as “hard to say”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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
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. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b c d 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
11. ^ a b c Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner