ὀρυμαγδός

Forms

ὀρῠμαγδός (orumagdós) m (genitive ὀρῠμαγδοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an expressive word with the same ending as other words for noises, such as κέλαδος (kélados), χρόμαδος (khrómados) and ῥοῖβδος (rhoîbdos).^[2][3][4] Its stem has been compared with ὠρύομαι (ōrúomai, “to howl”) and with ἐρυγεῖν (erugeîn, “to bellow”) and ἐρύγμηλος (erúgmēlos, “bellowing”) (Kretschmer), but the details are unclear.^[2][4][3] Szemerényi started from Hesychius' gloss ὀρυγμάδες (orugmádes, “noises”) and posited a stem ὀρυγ- (orug-) with a prothetic vowel.^[3][5] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewg- (“to roar”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it often for the din of a throng of men fighting, working or running about, and never for voices, only for inarticulate sounds: the noise of men and dogs, of woodcutters, of a load of wood thrown down, of a raging river.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod's Shield uses it for the noise of battle, Simonides for the roar of the sea and Apollonius of Rhodes for the noise of oars.^[6][8] It stayed a poetic word, with few attestations after Homer.^[9]

Modern Greek ορυμαγδός (orymagdós), a learned form, is a din made up of loud noises from many sources.^[10][5]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the din of battle and of work.^[6][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Shield uses it for the noise of battle.^[6][11]
• 6th–5th century BC – Simonides uses it for the roar of the sea.^[6][8][11]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it for the noise of oars.^[6][11]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it.^[9][11]
• Modern Greek – The learned Modern Greek ορυμαγδός (orymagdós) means a loud din.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loud din, a crashing, as of battle, weapons and armour.^[6][8]
2. The noise of men and dogs, of woodcutters at work, of a load of wood thrown down.^[6][8][7]
3. The roar of a torrent or of the sea; the noise of oars.^[6][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge