ὀρεκτός

Forms

ὀρεκτός (orektós) m (feminine ὀρεκτή, neuter ὀρεκτόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the verbal adjective of ὀρέγω (orégō, “to stretch out, reach for”),^[2][3] and it is reconstructed as inherited from Proto-Hellenic *orektós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵtós, from the root Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to stretch, straighten”).^[1][4] Beekes counts ὀρεκτός and Latin rēctus (“straight”) among the correspondences between Greek and Latin built on this root, beside the present and regō (“to direct, rule”); the long vowel of the Latin word is due to Lachmann's law.^[3] Chantraine takes ὀρεκτός and the verb's aorist to be formations parallel to the Latin ones, and discusses the initial ⟨ο⟩, which is peculiar to Greek: Frisk took it for a prefix, others for a prothetic vowel, which a laryngeal reconstruction can explain.^[5]

The English word right is a cognate too.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only Homeric use is in the Iliad (2.543), of ash spears “held out”, that is, held out for thrusting at close quarters.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

The Homeric sense survives in the geographer Strabo, who uses ὀρεκτὸν δόρυ for the thrusting pike, as against the thrown javelin.^[7][8]

From the middle sense of ὀρέγω (orégō), “to reach for, desire”, Aristotle made the adjective a term of his psychology: τὸ ὀρεκτόν is the object of desire, which, he says in On the Soul, moves without being moved, by being thought or imagined.^[7][2][3] In his ethics it can also describe a desirable person.^[2] The Stoics set it against the gerundive ὀρεκτέος, “to be desired”.^[7] Its opposite in the philosophical vocabulary is ἐκκλιτός (ekklitós), “to be avoided”.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of spears held out for thrusting.^[6][7]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses τὸ ὀρεκτόν for the object of desire.^[7][2][10]
• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Strabo calls a thrusting pike ὀρεκτὸν δόρυ.^[7][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Outstretched, held out; of spears, held out for thrusting.^[7][2][6]
2. (philosophy) Reached for, desired,^[7][2] and of a person, desirable.^[2] As a noun, τὸ ὀρεκτόν, the object of appetite or desire.^[7][2]

Word family

• ὀρεκτικός (orektikós)
• εὐόρεκτος (euórektos)
• κακορέκτης (kakoréktēs)

Related words

• ὀρέγω (orégō)
• ὄρεξις (órexis)
• Latin rēctus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c 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
4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
9. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge