ὅμηρος

Probably from ὁμοῦ (homoû, “together”) + the ἀρ- (ar-) found in ἀραρίσκω (ararískō, “to fasten, join”), with a similar sense development in Latin obses (“pledge, security, hostage”). Compare ὁμαρτέω (homartéō), ὅμᾰδος (hómados).

ὅμηρος • (hómēros) m (genitive ὁμήρου); second declension

1. pledge, surety, hostage
   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.108.3:

     Λοκρῶν τῶν Ὀπουντίων ἑκατὸν ἄνδρας ὁμήρους τοὺς πλουσιωτάτους ἔλαβον

     Lokrôn tôn Opountíōn hekatòn ándras homḗrous toùs plousiōtátous élabon

     from the Locrians of Opus took as hostages a hundred of the richest men

• ὁμαρτέω (homartéō)

• “ὅμηρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ὅμηρος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• 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