ὅπλον

Forms

ὅπλον (hóplon) n (genitive ὅπλου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a Greek formation with the suffix ⟨-λο-⟩ and the o-grade from Ancient Greek ἕπω (hépō, “to be busy with, care for”), whose root is inherited, Proto-Indo-European *sep- (“to care for, prepare”).^[2][3][1][4] It is not related to ἕπομαι (hépomai, “to follow”).^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for a tool or implement, for the tools of a smith, and in the Odyssey for the tackle and ropes of a ship; only the Iliad uses the plural for arms and armour.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In the Odyssey the singular means a rope, and Herodotus uses the plural for the cables of Xerxes' bridge.^[5][7] From Pindar on the sense “weapons, armour” prevails, and in Attic it is above all the heavy arms of the infantryman, especially the large shield, from which the ὁπλίτης (hoplī́tēs) took his name.^[5][7] By metonymy the plural meant the men-at-arms themselves, a military force or the art of war, and Athenian decrees speak of the general “in charge of the arms”.^[5][7]

In the New Testament the arms are mostly figurative: the weapons of light, of righteousness, of a spiritual warfare.^[8] Coptic borrowed the word.^[9] Medieval Greek kept it, and in Modern Greek όπλο (óplo) is a weapon, with senses renewed on French arme.^[10][11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a smith's tools and for armour, the Odyssey for a ship's tackle.^[5][6][12]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days uses it for a ship's tackle.^[5][7][13]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the singular for a weapon and the plural for heavy arms.^[5][13]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses the singular for the shield of a hoplite.^[5][13]
• AD 875 – A Sahidic Coptic manuscript has the borrowing ϩⲱⲡⲗⲟⲛ.^[9]
• Modern Greek – It survives as όπλο (óplo), a weapon.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tool, implement; mostly in the plural, a smith's tools.^[5][7]
2. (plural) The tackle of a ship; ropes, cables; in the singular, a rope.^[5][7]
3. (plural) Arms and armour; in the singular, a weapon or piece of armour.^[5][7]
4. The large shield of a hoplite; the heavy arms of the infantry.^[5][7]
5. (plural) Men-at-arms, an armed force; military power.^[5][7]
6. (figurative) A weapon, means of defence; in the New Testament, the weapons of a spiritual warfare.^[5][8]

Word family

• ὁπλίζω (hoplízō)
• ὁπλίτης (hoplī́tēs)
• ὁπλοφύλαξ (hoplophúlax)

Related words

• ἕπω (hépō)
• ὁπλή (hoplḗ)
• English hoplite

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge