ὀγδοήκοντα

Forms

ὀγδοήκοντᾰ (ogdoḗkonta) ^[1] Ionic and Doric ὀγδώκοντα.^[2][3] ὀδώκοντα on an ostracon of the 2nd century BC.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *oktōḱomt (“eighty”), from an earlier *oḱto(w)-dḱomt (“eight tens”).^[1] The expected Greek form would be *ὀκτώκοντα (*oktṓkonta), as Latin octōgintā, Old Armenian ութսուն (utʻsun) and Old Irish ochtmoga suggest; the attested form was remodelled after ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomḗkonta, “seventy”) and the ordinal ὄγδοος (ógdoos, “eighth”).^[4][1][5] The voiced cluster of ὄγδοος (ógdoos) itself may be due to ἕβδομος (hébdomos, “seventh”).^[6]

Chantraine explains Homeric and Ionic ὀγδώκοντα (ogdṓkonta) as a contraction,^[4] while Frisk, following Sommer, takes it as a blend with ὀκτώ (oktṓ, “eight”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has the Ionic form ὀγδώκοντα in the Iliad.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus uses the Ionic form, and Thucydides has the Attic ὀγδοήκοντα.^[2][7] From it Hellenistic Greek made ὀγδοάς (ogdoás, “the number eight”), which replaced the older ὀκτάς (oktás).^[5][6] It is the numeral of the Septuagint and the New Testament: Luke uses it of a widow of eighty-four.^[8][9]

Medieval Greek also had the shortened forms ογδοήντα (ogdoínta) and ογδόντα (ogdónta), and the latter survives as Modern Greek ογδόντα (ogdónta); ογδοήκοντα (ogdoíkonta) is a learned form.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 700s BC – The Iliad has the Ionic form ὀγδώκοντα.^[2][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses ὀγδώκοντα and Thucydides ὀγδοήκοντα.^[2][7]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it in Luke.^[8]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek has the shortened forms ογδοήντα (ogdoínta) and ογδόντα (ogdónta).^[10]
• Modern Greek – ογδόντα (ogdónta) is the ordinary numeral; ὀγδοήκοντα survives as a learned form.^[10][11]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Eighty.^[2][3][8]

Related words

• ὀκτώ (oktṓ)
• ὄγδοος (ógdoos)
• ἑβδομήκοντα (hebdomḗkonta)
• Latin octōgintā

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b 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
7. ^ a b c d Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c 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
9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki