ὅμηρος

Forms

ὅμηρος (hómēros) m (genitive ὁμήρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably a compound from Ancient Greek ὁμοῦ (homoû, “together”) + ἀραρίσκω (ararískō, “to join, fit”), the second part being the root ἀρ- of the verb: properly “one joined together with others”, someone forced to go along, hence a hostage or pledge.^[2][3][1] Latin obses (“hostage”), from obsideō, shows a similar development of meaning.^[2][3] The older sense survives in ὁμηρέω (homēréō) “meet, accompany” and in Hesychius' gloss ὁμηρέταις (homērétais) “those of the same vote or opinion”.^[2][3] Szemerényi instead took the second part from the root ἐρ- of ἔρχομαι (érkhomai, “to come, go”).^[3]

The Etymologicum Magnum already explained it as “being together with those who take him” or from “being fitted together”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Herodotus, of hostages taken from conquered or allied peoples: he tells of the children of islanders taken as hostages.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Attic tragedy, comedy and prose it is the usual word for a person handed over or seized as a guarantee that a treaty or demand will be met.^[6][5] Thucydides applies it to a territory held as a pledge, and Plato figuratively to examples kept as pledges of an argument.^[6][5] The neuter plural ὅμηρα “hostages” appears in Lysias and Polybius, and in the Septuagint even of one person.^[5][8] Derived words include ὁμηρεύω (homēreúō) “serve as a hostage” and ὁμηρεία (homēreía) “giving of hostages”.^[3]

Modern Greek όμηρος (ómiros) is a learned revival of the ancient word, used for instance of passengers held by hijackers.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus, Euripides and Thucydides use it of hostages.^{[6][5][10][11]}
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of land held as a pledge.^[5][6][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato calls examples pledges of an argument, and Lysias uses the neuter plural ὅμηρα.^[5][11]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the neuter plural for hostages.^[5][11]
• Modern Greek – όμηρος (ómiros) is revived as a learned word for a hostage.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hostage, a person given or taken as a guarantee, especially for the terms of a treaty in war.^[6][5]
2. A pledge or surety: a territory held as a guarantee; figuratively, examples held as pledges of an argument.^[6][5]

Word family

• ὁμηρεύω (homēreúō)
• ὁμηρεία (homēreía)

Related words

• ὁμοῦ (homoû)
• ἀραρίσκω (ararískō)

Usage notes

Hesychius also glosses ὅμηρος as “blind”, a sense found in Lycophron.^[12][3] Beekes takes it as a common-noun use of the poet's name Ὅμηρος (Hómēros), and Frisk thinks this more likely than the old explanation “one who goes with a guide”.^[2][3] Babiniotis derives the name from the common noun.^[7] The Etymologicum Magnum offers fanciful derivations of the name, among them “not seeing”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)