ὦνος

Forms

ὦνος (ônos) m (genitive ὤνου); second declension^[1]

• Cunliffe writes it with a digamma, ϝῶνος (wônos).^[2]
• The usual prose word is the feminine ὠνή (ōnḗ) “purchase” (Doric ὠνά (ōná), Lesbian ὄννα (ónna)).^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *wosno- (“purchase price”),^[1][3] the o-grade of a noun also continued by Latin vēnum (“sale”), used in a phrase meaning “to put up for sale”, and Old Armenian գին (gin, “price”).^[3][5][4] Sanskrit वस्न (vasná, “purchase price”) may continue either vowel grade.^[3][1] Beekes and Frisk see no need for a lengthened-grade form.^[3][5]

The noun belongs to a primary verb meaning “to buy”, preserved in Hittite wašti (“you buy”).^[3][5] The Greek verb ὠνέομαι (ōnéomai) “to buy” is a denominative from it, as Sanskrit has a denominative “to bargain” from its noun.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the price paid for something: in the Iliad the price given for Lycaon, who had been sold as a slave, and in the Odyssey the price of goods and the business of buying.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed poetic and rare: GLAUx counts 18 occurrences in 10 texts, from Homer and Hesiod to Theocritus and Apollonius Rhodius.^[8] Apollonius uses it of goods exchanged in trade.^[6] Prose used the feminine and the verb ὠνέομαι (ōnéomai), which, with the old aorist πρίασθαι (príasthai), was later replaced by ἀγοράζω (agorázō).^[3] Hesychius glosses ὦνος with ὠνή (ōnḗ), the price paid in exchange for something.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the price of a slave or of goods.^[2][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – A fragment of Hesiod has it.^[7][8][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it for a price.^[7][10]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius Rhodius uses it of goods of trade.^[6][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The price paid for a thing, purchase price; with a genitive, the price for someone, a ransom.^[6][7][2]
2. Purchase, buying.^[6][7]
3. (Hellenistic poetry) Goods of trade, merchandise.^[6]

Word family

• ὠνέομαι (ōnéomai)
• ὠνή (ōnḗ)
• ὤνιος (ṓnios)
• εὔωνος (eúōnos)
• τελώνης (telṓnēs)

Related words

• Latin vēnum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge