ὄνος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ó.nos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈo.nos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈo.nos/^[1]

Forms

ὄνος (ónos) m or f (genitive ὄνου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] Beekes thinks it is probably a Pre-Greek word, from Pre-Greek.^[2][1] Mycenaean has Mycenaean Greek o-no, /onos/.^[2][3]

Brugmann's derivation from *ὄσονος (*ósonos), borrowed together with Latin asinus (“ass”) from a language south of the Black Sea, is doubtful;^[2] Armenian Old Armenian էշ (ēš, “ass”) rather comes from the word for “horse”.^[2][3] Sumerian anšu (“ass”) has also been compared.^[2] It is not related to onus (“burden”), and a link with Biblical Hebrew אָתוֹן (ʾāṯôn, “she-ass”) is rejected.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets have Mycenaean Greek o-no.^[2] Homer has it only once (Iliad 11.558).^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

From Herodotus on it is the common word for the ass or donkey, as a beast of burden and as the type of ugliness, clumsiness and stupidity.^[5][7] Herodotus also mentions horned asses among fabulous animals, and Aristotle the one-horned ass.^[5] Proverbs abound: “an ass hearing the lyre”, of one who understands nothing of music (Menander), and “a donkey's shadow”, of something worthless (Aristophanes, Plato).^[5][7]

By metaphor it named a windlass, the upper millstone, a fish (perhaps the hake), the woodlouse, a jug with two large handles, and two stars in the constellation Cancer (Theocritus).^[2][1][7] The Septuagint distinguishes the wild ass from the domestic one.^[8] Its compound ἡμίονος (hēmíonos) “mule” is Homeric.^[2] Modern Greek όνος is a learned word.^[9]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – Linear B has o-no.^[2]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it once, in a simile.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the donkey.^[5][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes has the proverb of the donkey's shadow.^[7][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander has “an ass hearing the lyre”.^[5][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ass, donkey.^[5][7]
2. A windlass; the upper millstone.^[2][1]
3. A fish, perhaps the hake.^[2][1]
4. A woodlouse.^[1]
5. A jug with two large handles.^[7]
6. (plural) Two stars in Cancer.^[7]

Word family

• ὄναγρος (ónagros)
• ὀνῖτις (onîtis)
• ὄνοσμα (ónosma)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge