ὄρφνη

• ὄρφνᾱ (órphnā) — Doric

Perhaps from Proto-Hellenic *orkʷʰnā, a secondary o-grade of *erkʷʰnos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rgʷ-sno-, from *h₁régʷos (“darkness”) (whence Ἔρεβος (Érebos)).^[1]

Alternatively from the same root as:

• Proto-Germanic *erpaz and Slavic forms Russian рябо́й (rjabój, “motley”) and Proto-Slavic *arębъ (“partridge”).^[1]
• Old Armenian արջն (arǰn, “black”).^[1]
• Tocharian B / Tocharian A erkent- / arkant- (“black”) and orkamo / orkäm (“dark”).^[2][1]

ὄρφνη • (órphnē) f (genitive ὄρφνης); first declension

1. darkness of night, night
   • 6th century BC, Theognis of Megara, Elegies 1077
   • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Olympian Ode 1.71
   • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 1.23
   • 423 BCE, Euripides, The Suppliants 994
   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Constitution of Sparta 5.7
   • Ti.Locr. 97c
     97d
   • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 18.19.7
   • 300 CE – 500 CE, Stobaeus, Anthology 4.23.61a
   1. darkness of the nether world
      • 416 BCE, Euripides, Herakles 46
        353

• “ὄρφνη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ὄρφνη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ὄρφνη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • darkness idem, page 195.
  • gloom idem, page 362.
  • murkiness idem, page 547.
  • obscurity idem, page 566.