ὀκτώ

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ok.tɔ̌ː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /okˈto/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /okˈto/^[1]

Forms

ὀκτώ (oktṓ) (ordinal ὄγδοος, adverbial ὀκτᾰ́κῐς)^[1] Boeotian and Lesbian ὀκτό, Heraclean hοκτώ (after ἕξ and ἑπτά), Elean ὀπτώ (after ἑπτά).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *oktṓ, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw (“eight”).^[1][2] The Indo-European word was evidently an old dual, but its further analysis is quite uncertain.^[2][3] Beekes considers a form *h₃eḱt- with a question mark.^[2][3][5]

Cognate with Sanskrit अष्टौ (aṣṭā́u), Latin octō, Gothic 𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌰𐌿 (ahtau) and Lithuanian aštuoni.^[2][3][1] Old Armenian ութ (utʻ), like Elean ὀπτώ, was remade after the word for “seven”.^[2][3] The ordinal is ὄγδοος (ógdoos), with a voiced /gd/.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in Homer: the Iliad counts eight young sparrows, with their mother the ninth.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

In compounds the older form was ὀκτω- (ὀκτωκαίδεκα “eighteen”), but ὀκτα- became more usual, after ἑπτα- and ἑξα-.^[2][5] A proverb “all eight” referred to the eight heavenly spheres.^[4]

It continued in medieval Greek and survives as Modern Greek οκτώ (októ), beside the popular Modern Greek οχτώ (ochtó), where /kt/ became /xt/ as in χτίζω beside κτίζω.^[7][5][1] Romani oxto in Romani was borrowed from Greek.^[1] English octa- comes from it, and octo- comes from the Latin cognate.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – ὀκτώ “eight”.^[6][4]
• 5th–4th century BC – Elean inscriptions spell it ὀπτώ.^[4]
• 3rd century BC – Boeotian inscriptions have ὀκτό.^[4]
• Medieval Greek – both οκτώ and οχτώ are found.^[7]
• Modern Greek – οκτώ and οχτώ.^[5][1]

Meanings

Numeral

1. eight.^[4][9]

Word family

• ὄγδοος (ógdoos)
• ὀκτάκις (oktákis)
• ὀγδοήκοντα (ogdoḗkonta)

Related words

• Latin octō
• English octa-
• English octopus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press