ὄρχος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Traditionally connected to Proto-Indo-European *werǵʰ- (“bind, wind together”) and its descendants, like Lithuanian veržiù (“to fence in, string”), Old Norse virgill (“snare”) and Proto-Germanic *wurgijaną (“to strangle”). However, this is semantically untenable, because the meaning of this word would be "fence, enclosure". The connection with Ὀρχομενός (Orkhomenós) is commonly accepted. As there is no Indo-European etymology, it seems more probable that the word is Pre-Greek.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ór.kʰos/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈor.kʰos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈor.xos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈor.xos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈor.xos/

Noun

ὄρχος • (órkhos) m (genitive ὄρχου); second declension

row of vines or fruit trees

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ ὄρχος; τοῦ ὄρχου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ὄρχος ho órkhos	τὼ ὄρχω tṑ órkhō	οἱ ὄρχοι hoi órkhoi
Genitive	τοῦ ὄρχου toû órkhou	τοῖν ὄρχοιν toîn órkhoin	τῶν ὄρχων tôn órkhōn
Dative	τῷ ὄρχῳ tôi órkhōi	τοῖν ὄρχοιν toîn órkhoin	τοῖς ὄρχοις toîs órkhois
Accusative	τὸν ὄρχον tòn órkhon	τὼ ὄρχω tṑ órkhō	τοὺς ὄρχους toùs órkhous
Vocative	ὄρχε órkhe	ὄρχω órkhō	ὄρχοι órkhoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ὀρχάς (orkhás)
ὄρχατος (órkhatos)
ὀρχηδόν (orkhēdón)
ὀρχμαί (orkhmaí)
ὀρχμούς (orkhmoús)
Ὀρχομενός (Orkhomenós)
ὀρχός (orkhós)

References

“ὄρχος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ὄρχος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
ὄρχος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

ὄρχος

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