ὁδός

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ho.dós/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /oˈðos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /oˈðos/^[1]

Forms

ὁδός (hodós) f (genitive ὁδοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *hodós.^[1] It has traditionally been compared with the Slavic word for “walk, course”, Proto-Slavic *xodъ, which like ὁδός often occurs with prefixes and may owe its x- (for s-) to them; this would point to Proto-Indo-European *sodós (“course”), a verbal noun of *sed- (“to sit”), with further links to Indo-Iranian verbs meaning “to tread on, go away”.^[2][1]

Beekes doubts this: the Slavic word shows no trace of Winter's law, which suggests that it was borrowed from Iranian, and the relation to *sed- remains unclear, so that ὁδός stays isolated.^[3] Wiktionary compares the development of English road, from Proto-Germanic *raidō (“ride, journey”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a way, path, track or road, a journey or voyage, and the means of passage (“your way lies open”).^[4][5] Once, in the Odyssey, the first syllable is lengthened for metre as οὐδός.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Classical Greek used it for any journey or march, the course of rivers and of heavenly bodies, and figuratively for a course of action or of life, the way to a goal, and a method or system of inquiry (Parmenides, Plato).^[6][5] Its compounds with prepositions, such as ἔξοδος (éxodos), εἴσοδος (eísodos) “entrance”, σύνοδος (súnodos) and μέθοδος (méthodos), serve as the verbal nouns of the verbs of going.^[3]

In the Septuagint it renders Hebrew דרך (derekh) “way”, including a person's way of life; in early Christian usage “the Way” names the Christian movement.^[7][1][8] Medieval Greek kept it for road, course and way of life, and Cypriot and Pontic made it masculine.^[9] Modern Greek οδός (odós) is a learned word for a road or street, familiar from street names.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Homer – a way, road or journey.^[4][5]
• 6th–5th century BC – Parmenides uses it for a way of inquiry.^[6][12]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus has κατ’ ὁδόν, “on the way”.^[5][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for a method of investigation, and Xenophon for the channel of a river.^[6][5][12]
• 3rd century BC – papyri mention the “royal road”.^[5]
• 1st century AD – Christians call their movement “the Way”.^[1][8]
• Modern Greek – οδός, a learned word for a road or street.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A journey by land or sea; a mission, march or setting out.^[6][5]
2. The route or direction of travel, way.^[6]
3. A means of passage; a way in, out or through.^[6][4]
4. A path or track; a public road or street.^[6][5]
5. The course of moving things: heavenly bodies, rivers, birds of omen.^[6]
6. A course of change, process.^[6]
7. A course of life or action.^[6]
8. The way to a goal; a manner; the right procedure, method.^[6][1]
9. A path of thought, a system.^[6]
10. (New Testament) The Way, the Christian faith.^[1][8]

Word family

• ἀνοδία (anodía)
• διέξοδος (diéxodos)
• διοδεύω (diodeúō)
• δίοδος (díodos)
• ἔξοδος (éxodos)
• εἴσοδος (eísodos)
• μέθοδος (méthodos)
• σύνοδος (súnodos)
• ὁδοιπόρος (hodoipóros)
• ὁδεύω (hodeúō)
• ὁδίτης (hodī́tēs)

Related words

• English exodus
• English method

Usage notes

Its homograph ὀδός (odós), with smooth breathing, is a word for “threshold”, Ionic οὐδός.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge