ἕρκος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /hér.kos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈer.kos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈer.kos/^[1]

Forms

ἕρκος (hérkos) n (genitive ἕρκεος or ἕρκους); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Its form is that of a verbal noun, like τέλος (télos) and γένος (génos), but there is no matching verb.^[2][3][4] Meringer connected it, as “wickerwork”, with Latin sarciō (“to mend, restore”), originally “to sew together”, which belongs with Hittite šarnink- (“to make amends”).^[2][3][4] On this view it is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *serḱ- (“to twine, mend”).^[1][5] Frisk finds an original sense “to plait” not impossible, but no connection is certain.^[4] A link with εἴργω (eírgō) is impossible, according to Chantraine.^[3] Pokorny puts ὅρκος (hórkos, “oath”) and ὁρκάνη (horkánē, “fence”) under the same root.^[5][2]

Ancient writers derived it from ἐρύκω (erúkō, “to hold back”) (Orion) or from the verb “to shut in” (Eustathius).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a fence or wall round a vineyard, garden or courtyard, the courtyard itself, and figuratively a defence, as a shield against javelins; the Homeric phrase “the fence of the teeth” is frequent.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod uses it of the wall round Tartarus, and Herodotus of a barricade or a temple's precinct wall.^[8][7] Aeschylus calls Susa the “Kissian enclosure”, and the poets use it loosely for a city, the sea or the face of a signet ring.^[7][8] In the Odyssey and in tragedy it is also a net for birds or a snare, and figuratively the net of Justice or of passion.^[8] Plato defines it as anything that encloses in order to hinder.^[7][8]

Its derivatives include ἑρκίον (herkíon) “fence” and ἑρκεῖος (herkeîos), the epithet of Zeus as guardian of the house, whose altar stood in the courtyard.^[2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a fence, a courtyard and “the fence of the teeth”.^[7][8]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of the wall round Tartarus.^[8][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a barricade.^[7][8][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato defines it as whatever encloses to hinder.^[7][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fence or wall round a garden, vineyard or courtyard; a defensive wall or barricade.^[7][8]
2. The enclosed space, a courtyard; a sacred precinct.^[7][8]
3. (figurative) A defence or bulwark, of a shield or of a person.^[7][8]
4. (periphrastic) “The fence of the teeth”; also of the sea or a signet.^[7][8]
5. A net or snare.^[8]

Word family

• ἑρκεῖος (herkeîos)
• ἑρκίον (herkíon)
• πολιορκέω (poliorkéō)
• εὐερκής (euerkḗs)

Related words

• ὅρκος (hórkos)

Usage notes

Humbach argued that the Homeric “fence of the teeth” denotes the lips, not the teeth.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge