οὐρανός

See also: ουρανός, Ουρανός, and Οὐρανός

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ὄρᾰνος (óranos) — Aeolic
ὠρᾰνός (ōranós) — Doric, Boeotian

Etymology

Of disputed origin, with multiple theories proposed:^[1]

Perhaps from an older *(ϝ)ορσανός (*(w)orsanós), which may be related to Proto-Indo-European *h₁worseye-, from *h₁wers- (“rain”) (compare Sanskrit वर्षति (varṣati, “it rains”). Beekes appears to favor this derivation.
From Proto-Indo-European *wers- (“to rise, protrude”), and compared to Lithuanian viršùs (“top, upper”), Sanskrit वर्ष्मन् (varṣman, “height, top”). This is not favored by Beekes.
From Proto-Indo-European *h₁wer- (“broad”), and compared with Sanskrit वरुण (váruṇa, “sea god”) and अर्णव (arṇava, “ocean”). This is categorically rejected by Beekes.
Based on the infix -αν- (-an-), which is difficult to explain as an old Indo-European formation, perhaps Pre-Greek; however, as the sky was very important to Indo-European groups, it is unlikely that a non-Indo-European formation for "sky" would become the dominant word in an Indo-European language.

A folk etymology advanced by Aristotle interpreted it as ὅρος (hóros, “limit”) and ἄνω (ánō, “up”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /uː.ra.nós/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /u.raˈnos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /u.raˈnos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /u.raˈnos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /u.raˈnos/

Noun

οὐρᾰνός • (ouranós) m (genitive οὐρᾰνοῦ); second declension

the vaulted sky, on which the stars were attached and the sun traveled: sky, heaven
the region above this vault, the home of the gods
(philosophy) the universe
anything shaped like the sky: vaulted ceiling, tent

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ οὐρᾰνός; τοῦ οὐρᾰνοῦ (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ οὐρᾰνός ho ouranós	τὼ οὐρᾰνώ tṑ ouranṓ	οἱ οὐρᾰνοί hoi ouranoí
Genitive	τοῦ οὐρᾰνοῦ toû ouranoû	τοῖν οὐρᾰνοῖν toîn ouranoîn	τῶν οὐρᾰνῶν tôn ouranôn
Dative	τῷ οὐρᾰνῷ tôi ouranôi	τοῖν οὐρᾰνοῖν toîn ouranoîn	τοῖς οὐρᾰνοῖς toîs ouranoîs
Accusative	τὸν οὐρᾰνόν tòn ouranón	τὼ οὐρᾰνώ tṑ ouranṓ	τοὺς οὐρᾰνούς toùs ouranoús
Vocative	οὐρᾰνέ ourané	οὐρᾰνώ ouranṓ	οὐρᾰνοί ouranoí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Classical authors did not use the plural forms, which are not seen until later Greek, especially in Christian writings such as the New Testament.

Derived terms

Οὐρανία (Ouranía)
οὐράνιος (ouránios)
οὐρᾰνῐ́σκος (ouranískos)
Οὐρανίωνες (Ouraníōnes)
οὐρανόθεν (ouranóthen)
οὐρανόθι (ouranóthi)
Οὐρανός (Ouranós)
οὐρανοσκόπος (ouranoskópos)
οὐρᾰνοῦχος (ouranoûkhos)
οὐρανόφι (ouranóphi)
οὐρανόω (ouranóō)
ὑπερουρᾰ́νῐος (huperouránios)

Descendants

Greek: ουρανός (ouranós)
Mariupol Greek: урано́с (uranós), урано́ (uranó)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “οὐρανός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1128

“οὐρανός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“οὐρανός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“οὐρανός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
οὐρανός 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
οὐρανός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“οὐρανός”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G3772 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
οὐρανός in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- air idem, page 21.
- firmament idem, page 322.
- heaven idem, page 393.
- palate idem, page 589.
- sky idem, page 781.
- uranus idem, page 939.
- weather idem, page 971.
- welkin idem, page 973.

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “οὐρανός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1128

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