ὅρος

Forms

ὅρος (hóros) m (genitive ὅρου); second declension^[1] Ionic and Homeric οὖρος (oûros), Corcyraean ὄρϝος (also written ὄρβος), Cretan and Argive ὦρος, Heraclean ὄρος, Megarian ὄρρος.^[2][3] Mycenaean Greek wo-wo /worwos/.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *wórwos, a form shown by Mycenaean Greek wo-wo and Corcyraean ὄρϝος (órwos), to which all the Greek forms go back.^[3][1] Beekes connects it with Latin urvō (“to mark out a boundary with a furrow”) and its basic noun urvum (“curved part of a plough”), from Proto-Indo-European *u(o)ru-o-, which may be the same formation.^[3] Within Greek, a link with ἐρύω (erúō, “to draw”) is probable according to Beekes and possible according to Wiktionary;^[3][1] Babiniotis gives the same comparisons.^[4] Wiktionary sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *werw- (“to draw, mark out”).^[1]

The breathing and vowel vary with the dialect: Attic has the form of the headword, Ionic οὖρος (oûros), Cretan and Argive ὦρος (ôros).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets have Mycenaean Greek wo-wo.^[3] In Homer, in the Ionic form οὖρος (oûros), it is the boundary of a field: in the Iliad two men quarrel over boundary markers (12.421), and a stone is described that men of old had set up as the boundary of a ploughland (21.405).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the word covers the boundaries of a territory, a country's frontier and the edge of the world, and the stone or pillar set up as a marker.^[6][2] In Attic law a ὅρος was the stone placed on mortgaged land or houses as a record of the debt;^[2][6] Harpocration explains that the Athenians gave this name to the inscriptions on mortgaged houses and plots.^[2][6][7]

From a limit in space it came to mean a limit of time or quantity, a proper measure or standard, and the defining mark by which one thing is told from another.^[6][2] Plato and Aristotle use it for a definition, and Aristotle for a term of a proposition in logic (ὅρος μέσος, the middle term); in mathematics it is a term of a ratio, and in music a note that bounds an interval.^[2][6] In papyri of the 4th century AD the plural means the terms or conditions of an agreement.^[2]

Modern Greek όρος (óros) is a learned word for a term or a condition, continuing the ancient senses together with French terme and condition.^[8]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – Linear B tablets have Mycenaean Greek wo-wo.^[3]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it, as οὖρος, for the boundary of a field.^[2][6]
• 7th–6th century BC – Solon uses it of the mortgage stones on Attic land.^[2][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a frontier and for a memorial pillar.^[2][6][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a definition and for a term in logic.^[2][6][9]
• 4th century AD – In papyri the plural means the terms of an agreement.^[2]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned όρος, “term, condition”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A boundary or frontier of a territory or country; the edge of a continent or of the world.^[6][2]
2. A boundary of land or property, or the stone or pillar that marks it; a landmark.^[6][2]
3. (Attic law) A stone or notice set up on mortgaged land or houses, recording the debt.^[6][2][7]
4. A limit of movement or activity; the bounds within which something is done.^[6]
5. A limit of size or quantity; a rule, standard or measure.^[6][2]
6. A period of time; the end limit of human life.^[6]
7. A distinguishing mark or criterion; a definition.^[6][2]
8. (logic) A term of a proposition.^[6][2]
9. (mathematics) A term of a ratio or proportion;^[6][2] (music) a note bounding an interval.^[6][2]
10. (Koine, plural) The terms or conditions of an agreement.^[2]

Word family

• ὅμορος (hómoros)
• ὁρίζω (horízō)
• τηλουρός (tēlourós)
• ὁροφύλαξ (horophúlax)

Related words

• ἐρύω (erúō)
• Latin urvō
• English horizon

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 n o p q r s t u v w Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Harpocration, Lexicon in decem oratores Atticos, ed. Wilhelm Dindorf (Oxford, 1853)
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge