ὦ

Forms

ὦ (ô) ^[1] Also accented ὤ, especially as an exclamation; ὦ is usual before a vocative.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ō, an interjection.^[1][4] Similar interjections, some created independently and some related, are found in other Indo-European languages: Latin ō, Lithuanian õ, Old Irish a and like forms in Gothic, Old Church Slavonic and Sanskrit.^[4][3] Chantraine stresses that in so simple and spontaneous a cry it is impossible to tell what is inherited.^[5]

From it come the verb ὤζω (ṓzō, “to cry “oh””), used by Aristophanes, the call ὠή (ōḗ, “hey there!”) and ὠόπ (ōóp), the cry that set the stroke for rowers.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer already uses it before the vocative in address, as when Achilles is called on in the first book of the Iliad, and in the lament “ay me”.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Attic it is the usual mark of address in dialogue and oratory, as in an orator's “gentlemen”, and in prayers to the gods.^[2][8] It can stand with a nominative instead of a vocative, as in Aeschylus' “O divine sky”, or with both together.^[2] As an exclamation it expresses surprise, joy or pain, and Lucian has it with a genitive of the cause: “oh, the shamelessness!”^[2][9] Aeschylus, Euripides and Xenophon have the call ὠή (ōḗ), which Latin took over as ōhē.^[5]

In the New Testament it is used in address, less often than in classical Greek.^[10][11] Old Armenian borrowed it as ով (ov).^[1] Modern Greek keeps ω as an interjection of surprise or indignation and, as a learned word, before a vocative.^[12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it before a vocative and in “ay me”.^[2][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it in invocations of the gods and with the nominative.^[2][13]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it in address, less often than classical Greek.^[10][11]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses ὢ with a genitive of the cause of an exclamation.^[2][13]
• 9th century AD – The grammarian Theognostus calls the letter Ω “big o”, ὦ μέγα.^[14][5][13]
• Modern Greek – ω (o) remains an interjection.^[12]

Meanings

Interjection

1. O!, in address, before a vocative (often left untranslated).^[2][10][15]
2. With a nominative in place of the vocative.^[2]
3. Oh!, an exclamation of surprise, joy or pain, with the nominative or with a genitive of the cause; ὤ μοι “ay me”.^[2][6]

Word family

• ὤζω (ṓzō)
• ὠή (ōḗ)

Related words

• Latin ō
• Latin ōhē

Usage notes

Hesychius calls ὦ the “article of the vocative case”.^[16] The Suda notes that in later comedy the address ὦ μέλε “my good fellow” was said only by women, but by men too in older writers.^[17]

The letter Ω was first called simply ὦ, after its sound (in Callias the comic poet and in Plato); the name ὦ μέγα “big o” is late, from the time when ο and ω were no longer told apart.^[14][5] The same spelling is also the present subjunctive of εἰμί (eimí) “I may be”.^[8][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ a b c d e 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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
9. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
14. ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
15. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
16. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
17. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
18. ^ Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl