ὀλίγος Ancient Greek · revision 2343

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=inherited|attested=Homer, Iliad|origins=ine-pro *h₃ligos}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /o.lí.ɡos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /oˈli.ɣos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /oˈli.ɣos/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ὀλῐ́γος''' (olígos) ''m'' (feminine ὀλῐ́γη, neuter ὀλῐ́γον); first/second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ Its origin is uncertain.^(Beekes 2010)^(Βασικό Λεξικό) Wiktionary takes it as probably [[inh|ine-pro|*h₃ligos|t=needy, small]], and Beekes, with a question mark, also reconstructs a root [[m|ine-pro|*h₃lig-|t=little]].^(Wiktionary)^(Beekes 2010) It may be the same word as [[xcl|աղքատ|tr=ałkʻat|t=poor]], from [[m|ine-pro|*oliko-]]; [[sga|líach|t=miserable]] and [[prg|licuts|t=small]] are less clear, since they point to a root ending in /k/.^(Beekes 2010)^(Wiktionary)^(Pokorny 1959)

+

+ Pokorny grouped it with [[λοιγός|tr=loigós|t=ruin, death]] and [[sq|lig|t=bad, meagre]], but Beekes keeps λοιγός apart, and Frisk and the Βασικό Λεξικό find the link doubtful.^(Pokorny 1959)^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960)^(Βασικό Λεξικό)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Homer uses it mostly of size: a small shield, a low voice, a little patch of ground, a short time.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010) The sense “few” is post-Homeric.^(Beekes 2010)^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In epic the word means “little, small, slight”; the ''Odyssey'' calls a man “small and of no account”, and a gift “small but welcome”.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021) From Hesiod and the lyric poets onward it is used more and more of number, “few”, which is its usual sense in Attic prose.^(CGL 2021)^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010)

+

+ In Thucydides and the orators οἱ ὀλίγοι, “the few”, are the ruling group in an oligarchy and the oligarchic party in a democracy, and the compound [[ὀλιγαρχία|tr=oligarkhía]] “rule of the few” was formed after [[μοναρχία|tr=monarkhía]].^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)^(Beekes 2010) Prose developed many fixed phrases from it: ὀλίγου “almost”, κατ᾽ ὀλίγον “little by little”, δι᾽ ὀλίγων “in few words”.^(Liddell & Scott 1889)^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ The Septuagint and the New Testament use it for “few” and “a little while” (“the labourers are few”).^(Lust 2003)^(BDAG 2000) Medieval Greek had many forms, among them λίγος, which became the everyday Modern Greek word; [[el|ολίγος|tr=olígos]] survives as a learned word in phrases such as παρ᾽ ολίγο “almost”.^(Kriaras)^(Triantafyllidis 1998)^(Wiktionary) English [[m|en|oligo-]] comes from it.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Homer – “small, little”, of size, voice, space and time.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(LSJ 1940)

+ * Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod contrasts “from few” with “from many”.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)^(DGE)

+ * 5th century BC – Herodotus says that a force was “too few” to engage the Medes.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 5th century BC – Thucydides uses οἱ ὀλίγοι for the oligarchs.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)^(DGE)

+ * 1st century AD – the New Testament uses it for “few”, as of the labourers in Matthew.^(BDAG 2000)^(Abbott-Smith 1922)

+ * Medieval Greek – forms such as ελίγος and λίγος appear beside ολίγος.^(Kriaras)

+ * Modern Greek – λίγος is the everyday word; ολίγος is learned.^(Triantafyllidis 1998)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|little]], [[m|en|small]] in size; of a voice, low; of space or time, small, short.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # Of little account, [[m|en|insignificant]].^(CGL 2021)

+ # ''(plural)'' [[m|en|few]].^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # ''(of quantity)'' Little, not much, scanty.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # ''(politics)'' οἱ ὀλίγοι, the few, the [[m|en|oligarch|alt=oligarchs]].^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # ''(neuter as adverb)'' ὀλίγον, a little, slightly; ὀλίγου, almost.^(LSJ 1940)^(Cunliffe 1924)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ὀλιγόπιστος|tr=oligópistos]]

+ * [[ὀλιγάρχης|tr=oligárkhēs]]

+ * [[ὀλιγόθερμος|tr=oligóthermos]]

+ * [[ὀλιγότροφος|tr=oligótrophos]]

+ * [[ὀλιγαρχία|tr=oligarkhíā]]

+ * [[ὀλιγάκις|tr=oligákis]]

+ * [[ὀλιγότης|tr=oligótēs]]

+ * [[ὀλιγωρέω|tr=oligōréō]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|oligarchy]]

+ * [[en|oligo-]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ The comparative and superlative are usually supplied by other words (ἐλάσσων, ἥσσων, μείων); Homer has ὀλίζων and ὀλίγιστος, and Attic inscriptions ὀλείζων, formed after [[μείζων|tr=meízōn]].^(CGL 2021)^(Beekes 2010)^(Βασικό Λεξικό)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}