Etymologically
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ὅρος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /hó.ros/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈo.ros/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈo.ros/[1]

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)

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