ὄρχις

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ór.kʰis/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈor.çis/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈor.çis/^[1]

Forms

ὄρχις (órkhis) m or f (genitive ὄρχεως or ὄρχῐος); third declension^[1] Genitive ὄρχεως, Ionic ὄρχιος; plural Attic ὄρχεις, Ionic ὄρχιες.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is an old inherited word, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃(o)rǵʰ-i- (“testicle”).^[2][5] Apart from suffixes it agrees with Old Armenian որձիք (orjikʻ, “testicles”), Albanian herdhë and Middle Irish uirgge; Avestan ərəzi (dual) points to a zero grade, and Hittite arki- “testicle” stands beside a Hittite verb ark- “to mount, copulate”.^[2][5][1] A derivative in -l- is Lithuanian eržilas (“stallion”).^[2][5]

Beekes reconstructs an initial *h₃-, which the o-vowel of most languages also suggests.^[2] Wiktionary has *h₁órǵʰis.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has the compound ἔνορχος (énorkhos) “uncastrated”.^[2][3] The simple word first appears in Hipponax, mostly in the plural.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus, Hippocrates, Xenophon and Demosthenes use it for the testicles, and Galen extends it to the ovaries.^[3][4] Theophrastus and Dioscorides name a plant after the shape of its root, the orchid, and Columella a kind of olive after the shape of its fruit.^[2][3] Aristophanes has the compound ὀρχίπεδα (orkhípeda) “scrotum, testicles”.^[2]

The plant name was borrowed as Latin orchis, and in 1845 John Lindley introduced English orchid from the Modern Latin family name Orchideae.^[7] Modern Greek όρχις (órchis) is a learned anatomical word.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – the compound ἔνορχος “uncastrated”.^[2][3]
• 6th century BC – Hipponax uses the word.^[4][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Hippocrates use it.^[3][6]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for the orchid.^[3][2][6]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it for the ovaries.^[3][6]
• 1845 – English orchid.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) Testicle.^[4][3]
2. (in females) The ovary.^[3][1]
3. (feminine) A plant, the orchid (salep).^[3][2]
4. (feminine) A kind of olive.^[3][2]

Word family

• ὀρχιπεδίζω (orkhipedízō)
• ὀρχίδιον (orkhídion)
• ἔνορχος (énorkhos)
• ὀρχίπεδα (orkhípeda)

Related words

• Latin orchis
• English orchid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki