ὄγκος

ὄγκος¹ barb of an arrow

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /óŋ.kos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈoŋ.ɡos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈoŋ.ɡos/^[1]

Forms

ὄγκος (ónkos) m (genitive ὄγκου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The barb is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ónkos (“bend”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ónkos (“bend, hook”).^[1][2] It is the same word as Latin uncus (“hook; hooked”).^[2][3] Wiktionary adds Sanskrit अङ्क (aṅká-) to the cognates.^[1] For further cognates with ⟨a-⟩, such as ἀγκάλη (ankálē) and ἀγκών (ankṓn), Beekes refers to ἀγκύλος (ankúlos).^[2][3] The late word ὄγκινος (ónkinos, “barbed hook”) is not a Greek derivative but comes from Latin uncīnus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad the plural names the barbs of an arrow.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Later the word is rare: Philostratus speaks of the barbs of a dart, and Moschion, quoted by Athenaeus, uses it for brackets on a ship.^[4][2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses the plural for the barbs of an arrow.^[4][5]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus quotes Moschion using it for the brackets of a ship.^[4][7]
• 3rd century AD – Philostratus uses it for the barbs of a dart.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) The barbs of an arrow.^[4][5]
2. A bracket on a ship.^[4]

ὄγκος² bulk, mass

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /óŋ.kos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈoŋ.ɡos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈoŋ.ɡos/^[1]

Forms

ὄγκος (ónkos) m (genitive ὄγκου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The bulk is usually taken as an ⟨o⟩-grade verbal noun meaning “what is carried, load” from the root of the reduplicated aorist ἐνεγκεῖν (enenkeîn, “to carry”), Proto-Indo-European *h₁enḱ-.^[2][3] Beekes notes the difficulty that this needs a Schwebeablaut, because the root is rather *h₁neḱ-, and Chantraine thinks the vowel may also be modelled on λόγος (lógos).^[2][3] Wiktionary compares Proto-Indo-Iranian *Hánćas (“share, portion”) for this explanation.^[1]

Jouanna argued that the meaning “burden” is not attested, and that every use can be understood from “swelling”, which may come from “curvature”; the word would then be the same as the barb, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ónkos.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the philosophers Parmenides and Empedocles, for the bulk or mass of a body: Parmenides speaks of something like the mass of a sphere.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Plato and Aristotle use it often for size, bulk and the space a body fills, and Herodotus has it for a heap of faggots, Euripides for a child in the womb, and Sophocles for the small mass of a dead man's ashes.^[4] Medical writers used it for the body itself and for swellings.^[4][8]

It also meant dignity and pride: Sophocles and Euripides use it for importance, and in a bad sense for pretension and self-importance.^[4][2] In rhetoric it is loftiness of style in Aristotle, and bombast in later critics.^[4] In the New Testament the Epistle to the Hebrews calls for every impediment to be laid aside.^[9]

Medieval Greek kept the word.^[10] Modern Greek όγκος (óngos) is learned: it means volume and size, with a sense “mass” from French masse and “tumour” from French tumeur, and Babiniotis notes that the medical sense is already in Galen.^[11][8] English onco-, used in medicine from the 19th century, is from a Latinized form of the word.^[12]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Parmenides uses it for the mass of a sphere.^[4][7]
• 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it for the mass of limbs.^[4][7]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for dignity and pride.^[4][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it often for bulk and size.^[4][7]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for the space filled by a body and for loftiness of style.^[4][7]
• New Testament – The Epistle to the Hebrews uses it for an impediment that must be laid aside.^[9]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it for a pathological swelling.^[8][7]
• 19th century – English forms medical words with onco-.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Bulk, size, mass of a body; the space a body fills.^[4][2]
2. A mass, heap; the body itself.^[4]
3. (medicine) A swelling.^[4][8]
4. Weight, burden, trouble.^[4][9]
5. Dignity, importance, pride; in a bad sense, self-importance, pretension.^[4][2]
6. (rhetoric) Loftiness of style; bombast.^[4][2]

Word family

• ὀγκηρός (onkērós)
• ὀγκόω (onkóō)