ὅρκος

See also: όρκος and Ὅρκος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Traditionally taken as an o-grade nominal formation from Proto-Indo-European *serḱ- (“to mend, fence”), whence also ἕρκος (hérkos, “fence”), i.e. "the bounds that one assumes" > "obligation, oath".

However, this has been disputed, with dissenting theories treating the word as related instead to Latin surculus (“twig”), via a hypothetical earlier form *sorcus, *surcus, from which the Greek would have borrowed the Latin. Under this theory, the Greek would thus refer to a "wooden staff raised when swearing an oath". This appears more semantically tenuous, however, in addition to the Latin term being of uncertain origin.^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /hór.kos/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈ(h)or.kos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈor.kos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈor.kos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈor.kos/

Noun

ὅρκος • (hórkos) m (genitive ὅρκου); second declension

the object by which one swears, the witness of an oath, as the Styx was among the gods, or as Zeus was among mortals
- c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 15.38
an oath
Synonym: ὅρκιον (hórkion)
- c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.377

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ ὅρκος; τοῦ ὅρκου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ὅρκος ho hórkos	τὼ ὅρκω tṑ hórkō	οἱ ὅρκοι hoi hórkoi
Genitive	τοῦ ὅρκου toû hórkou	τοῖν ὅρκοιν toîn hórkoin	τῶν ὅρκων tôn hórkōn
Dative	τῷ ὅρκῳ tōî hórkōi	τοῖν ὅρκοιν toîn hórkoin	τοῖς ὅρκοις toîs hórkois
Accusative	τὸν ὅρκον tòn hórkon	τὼ ὅρκω tṑ hórkō	τοὺς ὅρκους toùs hórkous
Vocative	ὅρκε hórke	ὅρκω hórkō	ὅρκοι hórkoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ἐπίορκος (epíorkos)
ἑρκάνη (herkánē)
εὐορκέω (euorkéō)
ὁρκάνη (horkánē)
ὁρκίζω (horkízō)
ὁρκικός (horkikós)
ὁρκίλλομαι (horkíllomai)
ὅρκιος (hórkios)
Ὅρκος (Hórkos)
ὁρκόω (horkóō)
ὁρκωτής (horkōtḗs)
ψευδορκέω (pseudorkéō)

Descendants

Greek: όρκος (órkos)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “ὅρκος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1103

“ὅρκος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ὅρκος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“ὅρκος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
ὅρκος in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ὅρκος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“ὅρκος”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G3727 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- affirmation idem, page 16.
- asseveration idem, page 46.
- oath idem, page 564.
- swearing idem, page 847.
ὅρκος, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “ὅρκος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1103

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