ἰχθύς

• ἰχθῦς (ikhthûs)

Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰu- (“fish”), but the initial ἰ is unetymological and problematic.^[1][2] Compare Old Armenian ձուկն (jukn) and Lithuanian žuvìs.

ἰχθῡ́ς • (ikhthū́s) m (genitive ἰχθῠ́ος); third declension

1. fish
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 24.82:

     ἔρχεται ὠμηστῇσιν ἐπ’ ἰχθύσι κῆρα φέρουσα

     érkhetai ōmēstêisin ep’ ikhthúsi kêra phérousa

     goeth down bearing death to the ravenous fishes

   1. (figuratively) stupid person
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 2.975b:

        ὥσπερ αὖ καὶ τῶν βασιλέων Ἀετὸς μὲν ὁ Πύρρος ἥδετο καλούμενος Ἰέραξ δ' ὁ Ἀντίοχος· ἰχθῦς δὲ τοὺς ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἀνοήτους λοιδοροῦντες ἢ σκώπτοντες ὀνομάζομεν.

        hṓsper aû kaì tôn basiléōn Aetòs mèn ho Púrrhos hḗdeto kaloúmenos Iérax d’ ho Antíokhos; ikhthûs dè toùs amatheîs kaì anoḗtous loidoroûntes ḕ skṓptontes onomázomen.

        So again, among monarchs Pyrrhus liked to be called an Eagle and Antiochus a Hawk. But when we deride, or rail at, stupid and ignorant people we call them "fish."

   2. (in the plural) fish market
      • 405 BCE, Aristophanes, The Frogs 1068:

        κἂν ταῦτα λέγων ἐξαπατήσῃ, παρὰ τοὺς ἰχθῦς ἀνέκυψεν.

        kàn taûta légōn exapatḗsēi, parà toùs ikhthûs anékupsen.

        And if he fooled 'em with that story, he'd pop up in the fish market.

   3. (in the plural) Pisces (constellation)
      • 190 BCE – 120 BCE, Hipparchus, Collected Works 1.2.3
      • 234 CE – 305 CE, Porphyry, Antr. 22

• Greek: ιχθύς (ichthýs)
• → English: ichthys

• ἰχθύς in Wilhelm Pape's Handwörterbuch der griechischen Sprache: Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch. 1875. Vol I, pg. 582/1.
• “ἰχθῦς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἰχθύς”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ἰχθύς”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἰχθύς in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• ἰχθύς in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “ἰχθύς”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G2486 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • fish idem, page 323.
• “ἰχθύς”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011