Etymologically
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ὄνυξ

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ὄνυξ1 nail, claw, hoof

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ó.nyks/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈo.nyks/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈo.nyks/[1]

Forms

ὄνῠξ (ónux) m (genitive ὄνῠχος); third declension[1]

Etymology

The nail or claw is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃negʰ- (“nail”), the old name of the nail and the hoof, kept in most Indo-European branches in varied forms.[1][2][3] The two-syllable Greek form with /u/ in the second syllable is hard to explain: Beekes accounts for it by Cowgill's Law, which needs a labial sound nearby, and so proposes a u-stem *h₃nogʰ-u- or a root *h₃nogʷʰ-.[2] Chantraine thinks rather of dissimilation from the initial /o/.[2][4]

The nearest match is the two-syllable Old Armenian եղունգն (ełungn, “nail”).[2][3] The other languages have a one-syllable stem: Latin unguis and Old Irish ingen from the zero grade, Old High German nagal and the English word nail and Lithuanian nãgas from *h₃nogʰ-, and Sanskrit नख (nakhá, “nail, claw”) with an unexplained voiceless aspirate.[2][3][4][1] Mycenaean has the word as Mycenaean Greek o-nu-ka.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it only in the epic dative plural, always of the talons of an eagle.[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

From Hesiod on it is used of the talons of other birds of prey, the claws of lions, crocodiles and the Sphinx, and human fingernails and toenails; mourners tear their cheeks with their nails in Herodotus and tragedy.[5][6] Xenophon uses it of the hooves of horses, and Aristotle treats the hoof as the counterpart of the nail and claw.[5][6] Set phrases drew on it: wine warms a man “to the tips of his nails”, and a careful joiner tested a fit “with the nail”, whence the sense of precision.[5]

By resemblance the word named many nail- or claw-shaped things: the fluke of an anchor, a surgeon's finger instrument, a scraping tool, the white base of a rose petal, an aromatic substance (onycha), and in medicine a collection of pus in the eye.[5][8] The Septuagint uses it for claws and hooves.[8]

Medieval Greek kept it, later as όνυχας, but the ordinary word is now Modern Greek νύχι (nýchi), from the diminutive ὀνύχιον (onúkhion).[9][10]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use the plural of an eagle's talons.[5][11]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of the claws of beasts and of human nails.[5][6][12]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for the hoof of a horse.[5][6][12]
  • Modern Greek – The diminutive gives Modern Greek νύχι (nýchi, “nail”).[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A nail of the hand or foot; a fingernail, a toenail.[5][6]
  2. A talon or claw of a bird of prey, a lion or another animal, or of a fearsome being.[5][6]
  3. A hoof of a horse or ox.[5][6]
  4. Something shaped like a claw: the fluke of an anchor, a surgeon's instrument, a scraping tool.[5]
  5. An aromatic substance, onycha.[5][8]

Word family

  • γαμψῶνυξ (gampsônux)
  • ὀνύχιον (onúkhion)
  • ὀνυχίζω (onukhízō)
  • ὀνυχιστήρ (onukhistḗr)
  • ὀνυχογραφέομαι (onukhographéomai)

ὄνυξ2 onyx

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ó.nyks/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈo.nyks/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈo.nyks/[1]

Forms

ὄνῠξ (ónux) m (genitive ὄνῠχος); third declension[1]

Etymology

The precious stone is probably the same word as ὄνυξ “nail”, named after the white sheen of a fingernail.[2][3] Chantraine calls this almost certain.[4] Beekes and Frisk also ask whether it might be a foreign word reshaped by folk etymology after the word for nail, which Chantraine finds very doubtful; the Semitic etymologies proposed by Lewy are untenable.[2][3][4] The New Pauly notes that Pliny already derived the name from the fingernail, and doubts it.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The stone is first named by Ctesias (5th–4th century BC).[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Theophrastus describes a gem with bands of different colours, and the Septuagint, the Letter of Aristeas and Josephus name the onyx among precious stones.[13][5][8] The name also covered an alabaster-like stone that the Romans imported for cups, bed feet and ointment jars, while the banded gem was set in rings and cut as cameos.[13] A banded stone combining onyx with the red sard was the σαρδόνυξ (sardónux, “sardonyx”).[2][5]

Latin borrowed the word as Latin onyx, and through Old French and Latin it reached English as onyx, first recorded in the 13th century.[14][15]

Timeline

  • 5th–4th century BC – Ctesias names the stone.[2][12]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes a banded onyx gem.[13][12]
  • 1st century AD – Josephus names the onyx among precious stones.[5][12]
  • 13th century – English borrows the word, through Old French and Latin, as onyx.[15]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Onyx, a veined or banded precious stone; a seal made of it.[5][8]
  2. An alabaster-like stone used for vessels.[13]

Word family

  • σαρδόνυξ (sardónux)
  • ὀνύχινος (onúkhinos)
  • ὀνυχίτης (onukhítēs)

Usage notes

Alcaeus has the saying “to judge the lion by its claws”, that is, to know a thing by a small but telling mark.[5]

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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ a b c d Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b c d e Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
  11. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  12. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  13. ^ a b c d e Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
  14. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  15. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com