ὄρνυμι

Forms

ὄρνῡμῐ (órnūmi) ^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *órnūmi,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to set in motion, to rise”).^[1][2][3] It is a nasal present of the type *h₃r̥-néu-, which Sanskrit ऋणोति (ṛṇóti, “sets in motion”) and Old Armenian յառնեմ (yaṙnem, “I rise”) continue too, and Hittite arnuzi may be a parallel formation.^[2][3][1] The root aorist ὦρτο (ôrto, “rose, rushed”) matches Vedic आर्त (ā́rta).^[2][1] Beekes takes the constant ⟨ο⟩ of the Greek forms as the regular outcome of the initial laryngeal /*h₃/.^[3] Chantraine discusses other explanations of the vowel.^[3][4]

Cognate with Latin orior (“to rise”).^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is Homeric: at the start of the Iliad Apollo raises a plague among the army.^[5][6] Homer has a full set of forms, the futures and aorists ὄρσω and ὦρσα, the reduplicated aorist ὤρορε and, in the middle, the root aorist ὦρτο.^[7][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The active verb means to set something in motion: to rouse a person from sleep, to start game, to urge warriors on, to bring on dawn or daylight.^[5][8] The gods use it of storms, winds and plagues they send, and men of war, strife and uproar.^[5] It also stirs up feelings, the longing for lament, fear or anger.^[5][8] The middle ὄρνυμαι means to rise, to rush, to start up, and the perfect ὄρωρα to be astir.^[3][4]

It is a poetic word: Homer, the epic and lyric poets and Pindar use it, but it is rare in the dialogue of tragedy.^[4][8] It survives in compounds and in names such as Ὀρσίλοχος.^[3][4]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of rousing people and of sending plagues and storms.^[6][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of Zeus setting an eagle on Prometheus.^[5]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses the present ὀρνύω.^[5][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles has the future, though the verb is rare in tragic dialogue.^[5][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rouse, to make rise; to wake from sleep; to start game.^[5][8]
2. To urge on, to incite, to send into action.^[5][8]
3. Of gods, to call forth storms, winds or a plague.^[5][8]
4. To stir up war, strife or a feeling such as fear, grief or longing.^[5][8]
5. (middle) To rise, to rush, to start up.^[3][4]
6. (perfect) To be astir, to be in motion.^[3][2]

Word family

• ἐνόρνυμι (enórnumi)
• ἐπόρνυμι (epórnūmi)
• παρόρνυμι (parórnumi)

Related words

• ὀρούω (oroúō)
• ὀρίνω (orínō)
• Latin orior

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 e f g 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 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. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press