ὠκύς
Pronunciation
Forms
ὠκῠ́ς (ōkús) m (feminine ὠκέᾰ or ὠκεῖᾰ, neuter ὠκῠ́); first/third declension[1]
Etymology
It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁oh₁ḱús (“quick, swift”), the old Indo-European adjective for “swift”.[1][2][3] It is identical with Sanskrit आशु (āśú-) and Avestan āsu-, and the superlative ὤκιστος (ṓkistos) matches Sanskrit आशिष्ठ (ā́śiṣṭha-).[2][4][5] Latin keeps only the comparative Latin ōcior (“swifter”), and Celtic only a negative compound, Old Welsh di-auc (“slow”).[2][4][5] Beekes thinks the adjective may contain the same root and suffix as the word for the horse, Proto-Indo-European *h₁éḱwos (see ἵππος (híppos)), and that Latin accipiter (“hawk”) may come from a compound meaning “fast-flying”, like Greek ὠκύπτερος (ōkúpteros).[2] Mycenaean already has it in the personal name Mycenaean Greek o-ku-na-wo, “with a swift ship”.[3][6]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is found from Homer on, meaning swift, above all in the formula “swift-footed Achilles” and in “swift Iris”; it is also said of horses, ships, arrows and the hawk.[7][8][9]
Semantic evolution
Beekes notes that this archaic adjective was pushed aside early by ταχύς (takhús), and outside epic it lived on mainly in poetry.[2][5] The poets apply it to persons, animals, winds, the sun's rays and flowing water, to quick minds (Pindar), to a swift death (Iliad) and to spells that work at once (Apollonius of Rhodes).[9] As the opposite of βραδύς (bradús) “slow” it was also used for “sharp, keen” of sound and hearing, in Apollonius and Aelian.[5] Its abstract noun ὠκύτης (ōkútēs) “swiftness” appears in Pindar and Euripides.[4]
It survives in Modern Greek as a learned word, Modern Greek ωκύς (okýs).[6]
Timeline
- Mycenaean – The personal name Mycenaean Greek o-ku-na-wo, “with a swift ship”, contains it.[3][6]
- Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of Achilles, Iris, horses, ships and arrows.[7][8]
- Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in epic formulas.[9][10]
- 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of quick thought and of a swift outcome, and Euripides of persons acting quickly.[9]
- 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of swift-working spells and of a keen sound.[9][5]
- Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word for “swift”.[6]
Meanings
Adjective
- Swift, quick, fleet, of persons, gods, animals, ships and weapons; often with “in the feet”.[8][9]
- Quick in action or thought.[9]
- Happening quickly, speedy, of death or events.[9]
- Sharp, keen, of sound or hearing.[5]
Word family
- ὦκα (ôka)
- ὠκύτης (ōkútēs)
- ὠκύπους (ōkúpous)
- ὠκύπτερος (ōkúpteros)
- ποδώκης (podṓkēs)
Related words
- Latin ōcior
- ταχύς (takhús)
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e 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
- ^ a b c Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
- ^ a b c d e f 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
- ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
- ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux