ὡς

Forms

ὡς (hōs) ^[1] Doric ὡ (hō); accented ὥς (hṓs) or ὧς (hôs) when demonstrative (“so”).^[2][3][4] Perhaps Mycenaean Greek jo- and Mycenaean Greek o- in Linear B, introductory particles at the head of a clause.^[5][6]

Etymology

The adverb and conjunction are an old instrumental-ablative of the relative pronoun ὅς (hós) “who, which”, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yós.^[2][5][7][1] Beekes compares Sanskrit यात् (yā́t), the ablative of the Sanskrit relative, and an Avestan instrumental, and reconstructs the endings *-oh₁ and *-ōd.^[2] In his view the final ⟨ς⟩ is an adverbial ending, also seen in ἕως (héōs).^[2][7][8] The Linear B particles Mycenaean Greek jo- and Mycenaean Greek o- are often read as the same word, but Chantraine notes that this reading is disputed.^[5]

The preposition ὡς “to”, used only with persons, has no agreed origin: Beekes and Frisk call it unclear and refer to the many proposals listed by Schwyzer.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is everywhere in Homer, as the relative “as”, as demonstrative ὥς “so” (“so he spoke”) and as a conjunction.^[3][9][4] The preposition first appears in a proverb of the Odyssey: ὡς αἰεὶ τὸν ὁμοῖον ἄγει θεὸς ὡς τὸν ὁμοῖον, “god always brings like to like”.^[2][10][11]

Semantic evolution

Already in Homer ὡς served as a general subordinating word, and Chantraine describes its uses (comparison, time, cause, purpose, result, exclamation) as often hard to separate.^[5][3] The demonstrative ὥς “thus” was frequent in epic and Ionic prose but rare in Attic, which kept it mostly in phrases such as καὶ ὥς “even so” and οὐδ' ὥς “not even so”.^[4][3] Attic prose replaced the consecutive ὡς with ὥστε (hṓste), and comparisons often used ὥσπερ (hṓsper) or ὡσεί (hōseí).^[5][3] With participles ὡς marks the reason or pretext as the subject sees it, and with superlatives it means “as … as possible” (ὡς τάχιστα).^[3][4] The preposition is found in Herodotus, Sophocles and Thucydides, always before the name of a person.^[3][2]

ὡς is one of the commonest words of the language, with over 100,000 occurrences in the GLAUx corpus.^[12] In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is chiefly a marker of comparison, but it also introduces time and purpose clauses and approximate numbers (“about”).^[13][14][15] It was borrowed as Coptic ϩⲱⲥ (hōs), first in texts of about AD 200.^[16] In Modern Greek the general subordinator is πώς (pós) instead, but ως (os) survives as a learned particle “as” and, under the influence of ἕως (héōs), as a preposition “until, as far as”.^[5][17]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – Linear B has introductory particles Mycenaean Greek jo- and Mycenaean Greek o-, which many read as this word.^[5][6]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it as relative and demonstrative adverb and as a conjunction; the Odyssey has the preposition in a proverb.^[3][9][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use the preposition with the names of persons.^[3][4][18]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it mainly in comparisons, and of approximate numbers.^[14][15]
• About AD 200 – The borrowing Coptic ϩⲱⲥ (hōs) appears in texts.^[16]
• Modern Greek – Learned ως (os) means “as” and, as a preposition, “until”.^[17]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (demonstrative, usually accented ὥς) so, thus, in this way; καὶ ὥς “even so”, οὐδ' ὥς “not even so”.^[3][4]
2. (relative) as, just as, in the way that; correlated with ὥς, “as … so”.^[3][4][9]
3. (with a participle or a phrase) As if, on the grounds that, in the belief that.^[3][4]
4. (parenthetical) As, in phrases such as ὡς ἔοικε “as it seems” and ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν “so to speak”.^[3][19]
5. (with superlatives) As … as possible: ὡς τάχιστα “as quickly as possible”.^[3][4]
6. (with numbers) about, nearly.^[4][14]
7. (exclamatory) how!; with an optative, in wishes.^[3][4]

Conjunction

1. that, after verbs of saying, knowing and showing, and how, in indirect questions.^[3][4]
2. (final) So that, in order that.^[3][4][5]
3. (consecutive) So that, with the result that.^[4][5]
4. (causal) since, because.^[3][4]
5. (temporal) when, as soon as.^[4][5]

Preposition

1. (with the accusative of a person) to, towards: ὡς Ἆγιν “to Agis”.^[3][4][2]

Word family

• ὥστε (hṓste)
• ὥσπερ (hṓsper)
• ὡσεί (hōseí)

Related words

• ὅς (hós)
• ἕως (héōs)

Usage notes

Hesychius explains the preposition by πρός (prós) (“ὡς ἐμέ: to me”).^[20] Hesychius records the proverb “as the hedgehog puts off giving birth”, said of those whose delay only makes matters worse.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
7. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, tr. Robert P. Keep, New York: Harper and Brothers
11. ^ Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
14. ^ a b c 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
15. ^ a b United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
16. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
17. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
18. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
19. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck
20. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)