Etymologically
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ὁδός

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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)

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