ὀρχήστρα

Forms

ὀρχήστρᾱ (orkhḗstrā) f (genitive ὀρχήστρᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

From ὀρχέομαι (orkhéomai) “to dance” with the suffix -τρα (-tra), which forms nouns of place and instrument: the word is the place where one dances.^[1][2][3] Beekes lists it among the derivatives of the verb as its noun of place, beside ὀρχηστής (orkhēstḗs) “dancer”.^[2]

The verb itself has no accepted etymology.^[2][4] Frisk took it as an intensive of ἔρχομαι (érkhomai) “to go”, which Chantraine finds unconvincing in both form and sense, and the old comparison with Sanskrit ऋघायति (ṛghāyáti) “to tremble, rage” is at best an indirect link.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in Attic prose around 400 BC.^[5] In Plato's Apology it is a part of the Athenian agora, where Socrates says the books of Anaxagoras could be bought for a drachma at most.^[6][7] At about the same time Andocides uses it of the dancing floor of the theatre.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The orchestra was the level space between the stage building and the seats where the chorus of a drama sang and danced; the Greek theatre grew out of such a round dancing floor around the altar of Dionysus.^[7][8] The lexicographers record both uses: Photius says the name first belonged to a place in the agora and then to the lower half-circle of the theatre where the choruses sang and danced, and the Lexica Segueriana add that in their day it was called the “sigma”, from its shape.^[9][10] Aristotle's Problems and a Milesian inscription of the 3rd or 2nd century BC use it of the theatre.^[6] Plutarch calls the Boeotian plain, where so many battles were fought, the “orchestra of Ares”, the dancing floor of war.^[7][6]

Latin borrowed the word as Latin orchestra.^[11] In Modern Greek ορχήστρα (orchístra) is a learned word: it keeps the ancient sense for the theatre, and it took the sense of a band of musicians from French orchestre, itself from the Greek word.^[12]

Timeline

• About 400 BC – Andocides and Plato's Apology use it of the dancing floor of the theatre and of a part of the agora.^[5][6]
• 4th century BC – The Aristotelian Problems use it of the theatre.^[6][13]
• 3rd–2nd century BC – An inscription from Miletus uses it of the theatre's orchestra.^[6]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch calls the Boeotian plain the orchestra of war.^[7][6][13]
• 9th century AD – Photius explains that the name passed from the agora to the theatre.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The learned word ορχήστρα (orchístra) names a body of musicians, after French orchestre.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The orchestra of a theatre: the space in front of the stage where the chorus danced and sang.^[6][7][3]
2. A part of the agora at Athens.^[6][7][9]
3. (figurative) A dancing floor of war: the “orchestra of Ares”, the Boeotian plain.^[7][6]

Word family

• ὀρχηστικός (orkhēstikós)

Related words

• ὀρχέομαι (orkhéomai)
• ὀρχηστής (orkhēstḗs)
• Latin orchestra
• English orchestra

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
10. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck
11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge