ὀφθαλμός

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /opʰ.tʰal.mós/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /oɸ.θalˈmos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /of.θalˈmos/^[1]

Forms

ὀφθᾰλμός (ophthalmós) m (genitive ὀφθᾰλμοῦ); second declension^[1] Boeotian ὄκταλλος (óktallos), Epidaurian and Laconian ὀπτίλλος (optíllos) (also ὀπτίλος).^[2][3]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek.^[2][3] The dialect forms ὄκταλλος (óktallos) and ὀπτίλλος (optíllos) show a variation κτ : πτ : φθ that Indo-European cannot explain, and the suffix ⟨-αλλ-⟩ is Pre-Greek, the reflex of a palatalized /ly/; he reconstructs a Pre-Greek ⟨*okʷt-alʸ-(m)-⟩.^[2][3] Its labiovelar could give either a labial or a plain /k/, and since aspiration was not distinctive in Pre-Greek, the aspirates of ⟨ὀφθ-⟩ are no problem.^[2][3] Its likeness to the inherited root Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“to see”) he calls a mere coincidence.^[2][3]

The older view connects it with the root of “seeing” in ὄπωπα (ópōpa) and ὄψ (óps): Frisk took -κτ- as old, -πτ- as analogical and -φθ- as expressive, and Specht compared the ⟨κτ⟩ of the Boeotian form with the kṣ of Sanskrit अक्षि (ákṣi, “eye”).^[2] Beekes objects that a labiovelar of the parent language became a labial before a consonant, so -κτ- cannot be regular, and he rejects the many attempts to explain it as a compound, for instance with θάλαμος (thálamos, “chamber”) or θάλλω (thállō, “to bloom”).^[2] Wiktionary adds Watkins' view that it is the inherited word for the eye, Proto-Indo-European *h₃ókʷs, deformed by taboo to avoid the evil eye.^[1] The Hesychian gloss ὄκκον (ókkon) “eye” may be Indo-European, and the inherited root also gives ὄμμα (ómma) and ὄσσε (ósse).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

From Homer on it is the eye, in Homer and Hesiod mostly in the plural, and Homer already has phrases such as “to come before someone's eyes” and “to see with one's eyes”.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod speaks of the all-seeing eye of Zeus, and the singular came to mean the watchful eye of a god or master; in Persia the “King's Eye” was an officer who reported to the king, known to Aeschylus, Herodotus, Aristophanes and Xenophon.^[4][5] Pindar calls a hero the “eye” of his army, the most precious part of something, and Sophocles uses it of a comfort or joy.^[5][4] The moon was the “eye of night” in Aeschylus.^[4][5]

By resemblance it named the bud of a plant (Alcman, Xenophon, Theophrastus), a bandage over the eye in Hippocratic surgery, and the discs at the centre of the volutes of an Ionic capital.^[4] Aristophanes jokes on the eyes painted on the bows of ships, and the word may there mean an oar-port.^[4][5] In the New Testament the “evil eye” is envy or malice, and “in the twinkling of an eye” is a moment.^[7]

Medieval Greek kept the word, with dialect forms in ⟨εφτ-⟩, but Modern Greek οφθαλμός (ofthalmós) is a learned word today.^[8][9] Through the English combining form ophthalmo- it gives the medical vocabulary of the eye.^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the eye, mostly in the plural.^[4][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod speaks of the eye of Zeus that sees everything.^[4][11]
• 7th century BC – Alcman uses it for the bud of a plant.^[4][5][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus calls the Persian king's reporting officer the King's Eye.^[4][5][11]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses the “evil eye” for envy.^[7]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned word οφθαλμός.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The eye, the organ of sight; in the plural also the sight or presence of someone (“before one's eyes”, “to one's face”).^[4][5]
2. The watchful eye of a god or master; the King's Eye, a Persian officer who reported to the king.^[4][5]
3. (figurative) The most precious part of something; a light or comfort.^[4][5]
4. (poetic) The eye of night or of the evening, the moon; the eye of heaven, the sun.^[4][5]
5. The bud or eye of a plant.^[4][5]
6. (medicine) A bandage covering one or both eyes.^[4]
7. (architecture) In the dual, the discs at the centre of the volutes of an Ionic capital.^[4]
8. (New Testament) The “evil eye”, envy or malice.^[7]

Word family

• δυσόφθαλμος (dusóphthalmos)
• ἐξόφθαλμος (exóphthalmos)
• ἑτερόφθαλμος (heteróphthalmos)
• εὐόφθαλμος (euóphthalmos)
• κοιλόφθαλμος (koilóphthalmos)
• μονόφθαλμος (monóphthalmos)
• ὀφθαλμία (ophthalmía)
• ὀφθαλμίδιον (ophthalmídion)
• ἀνόφθαλμος (anóphthalmos)
• βούφθαλμος (boúphthalmos)

Related words

• ὄμμα (ómma)
• ὄψ (óps)
• English ophthalmology

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge