Etymologically
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ὀκτώ

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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)
  • 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