ἁμαρτάνω

Although there are no known cognates outside of Greek, Beekes nonetheless reconstructs a Proto-Indo-European *h₂mert- (“to miss, fail”) as the ancestor of this word.^[1]

ᾰ̔μᾰρτᾰ́νω • (hămărtắnō)

1. (ambitransitive) to miss, miss the mark, especially of a thrown spear [with genitive ‘something’]
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.287
   • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Fragments 179, (Compare Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1194)
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 10.372
   • c. 445 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 155
   • 388 BCE, Aristophanes, Plutus 961
   • 480 BCE – 411 BCE, Antiphon of Rhamnus, Collected Works 124.26
   1. (ambitransitive) to fail at, miss one's point, go wrong in [with genitive ‘something’]
      • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 21.155
      • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1194
      • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 7.292
      • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.511
      • 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.207
      • 431 BCE, Euripides, Medea 498
      • 431 BCE – 404 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.33.92
      • 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.71
      • 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 7.139
   2. (transitive) to be deprived of, to lose [with genitive ‘something’]
      • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.512
      • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, Agamemnon 535
      • 438 BCE, Euripides, Alcestis 879
      • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 231
      • 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 9.7
      • 440 BCE – 390 BCE, Andocides, Collected Works 4.2
   3. (rarely transitive) to fail to do, neglect [with genitive ‘something’]
      • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 24.68
      • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, Agamemnon 213
2. (intransitive) to fail, do wrong, err, sin
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.501
   • Simonides of Ceos, Iamb. 7.111
   • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 260
   • c. 420 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1207
   • 375 BCE, Plato, The Republic 336E
   • 375 BCE, Plato, The Republic 340E
   • c. 450 BCE, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 1136
   • 408 BCE, Euripides, Orestes 1630
   • 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 489B
   • 375 BCE, Plato, The Republic 396A
   • c. 445 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 1093–1096:^[1]

     οὐκ ἄν ποτ’, ἄνδρες, ἄνδρα θαυμάσαιμ’ ἔτι, / ὃς μηδὲν ὢν γοναῖσιν εἶθ’ ἁμαρτάνει, / ὅθ’ οἱ δοκοῦντες εὐγενεῖς πεφυκέναι / τοιαῦθ’ ἁμαρτάνουσιν ἐν λόγοις ἔπη·

     ouk án pot’, ándres, ándra thaumásaim’ éti, / hòs mēdèn ṑn gonaîsin eîth’ hamartánei, / hóth’ hoi dokoûntes eugeneîs pephukénai / toiaûth’ hamartánousin en lógois épē;

     • 1893 translation by Sir Richard Jebb^[2]

       Never again, my fellow Salaminians, will I be amazed if some nobody by birth does wrong, when those who are reputed to be born of noble blood employ such wrongful sentiments in their arguments.

   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 1249
   • 428 BCE, Euripides, Hippolytus 320
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 22.154
   • 470 BCE, Aeschylus, The Suppliants 915
   • c. 370 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 3.1.40
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 891E
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Phaedrus 242E
   • 480 BCE – 411 BCE, Antiphon of Rhamnus, Collected Works 140.13
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 4.5.3
   • 460 BCE – 430 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.138
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 968
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Fragments 419
   • 480 BCE – 411 BCE, Antiphon of Rhamnus, Collected Works 121.41

• (antonym(s) of “miss a target, fail”): τυγχάνω (tunkhánō)

• “ἁμαρτάνω”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἁμαρτάνω”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ἁμαρτάνω”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἁμαρτάνω in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἁμαρτάνω in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ἁμαρτάνω in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2026)
• “ἁμαρτάνω”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G264 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• ἁμαρτάνω, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011