ὀργή

Forms

ὀργή (orgḗ) f (genitive ὀργῆς); first declension^[1] Doric ὀργά, Aeolic ὄργα; often in the plural.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is not settled.^[3][4] The old comparison, given by Chantraine and Frisk, is with Sanskrit ऊर्जा (ūrjā́, “nourishment, vigour”), which matches it in form; but the Sanskrit word is an extension of older ऊर्ज् (ū́rj-), so the match is secondary, and the sense fits the verb ὀργάω (orgáō, “to swell with sap, be ripe”) better than the noun.^[4][3] The same move from vigour to anger is found in Old Irish ferc (“anger”), which has the e-grade.^[3][4] Wiktionary sets up inherited from Proto-Indo-European *worǵéh₂, from *werǵ-, the root of ἔρδω (érdō, “to do”), and compares Proto-Celtic *wergā,^[1] and Babiniotis too gives the comparison with Sanskrit and a possible root “to swell”.^[1][5]

Szemerényi proposed a syncopated action noun *ὀρογά (*orogā́) from ὀρέγω (orégō, “to stretch out, reach for”),^[3] but Chantraine calls this hazardous and Babiniotis rejects it.^[3][5]

Ancient writers derived it from ὀρέγω (orégō), from ὀργάω (orgáō) (anger being short-lived eagerness), from εἴργω (eírgō, “to hinder”), because anger keeps one from thinking well, or from ἔρδω (érdō).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is not in Homer, who uses θυμός (thumós) instead.^[7] It is first found in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and Hesiod's Works and Days, in the sense of temper or disposition: Hesiod speaks of someone “like stingless drones in temper”.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is a natural impulse or temperament: Semonides says a woman's mood changes from one day to another, and Pindar speaks of a gentle or sweet disposition.^[7][3] From “passion, strong feeling” it came to mean, above all in Attic, “anger”: Herodotus, the tragedians and Thucydides use it so, and the phrase ὀργῇ means “in anger”.^[3][7][2] Chantraine sets it apart from two near-synonyms: χόλος (khólos) implies bitterness and lasting resentment, and θυμός (thumós) covers a wider field.^[3] Byzantine scholars made it the short-lived anger, against the lasting μῆνις (mênis).^[6]

In the Septuagint it often translates the wrath of God against sin, and the New Testament uses it both for human anger and for God's judgement, especially in the coming “day of wrath”.^[8][9] The word has been in use without a break: medieval Greek kept it, and Modern Greek οργή (orgí) is strong anger, including “the wrath of God”.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days uses it for temperament.^[7][12]
• 7th–6th century BC – Semonides uses it of a woman's changing moods.^[7][13]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for disposition, and also for anger.^[7][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus, the tragedians and Thucydides use it for anger and wrath.^[7][2]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it about 300 times, often for the wrath of God.^[8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for human anger and for divine judgement.^[9]
• Modern Greek – οργή (orgí) continues the ancient word, meaning “rage”.^[11][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Natural impulse; temperament, disposition, mood.^[7][2]
2. Strong emotion or passion, sometimes inspired by a god.^[2]
3. Anger, wrath, indignation; of gods, the Erinyes or the dead, their wrath or vengeance.^[7][2]
4. (in the dative and with prepositions, adverbial) In anger, in a passion: ὀργῇ, δι’ ὀργῆς, μετ’ ὀργῆς.^[7]
5. (Septuagint, New Testament) The wrath of God, his judgement or punishment.^[8][9]

Word family

• ὀργάω (orgáō)
• ὀργίζω (orgízō)

Related words

• ὄργια (órgia)

Usage notes

A hapax in Herodas, read by some as ὀργή, may be a different word, an adjective ὀργός “initiated”, related to ὄργια (órgia).^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b 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 Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b 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
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge