ὁράω
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
οὐρανὸς δὲ ἠτυμολόγηται, ἤτοι ἐπεὶ ὅρος παλαιός ἐστιν ἢ ἐπεὶ σφαιροειδὴς ὢν ἔνδοθεν αὑτοῦ ἡμᾶς οὐρεῖ, ὅ ἐστι φυλάσσει, ἢ ἐπεὶ ἀνώτατός ἐστι (τῶι δὲ ὅρωι τὸ ἄνω δηλοῦν Φρυγῶν ἴδιον, ὡς Νεοπτόλεμος ἐν ταῖς Φρυγίαις φωναῖς [Meineke Anal Al p. 360]) ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁρᾶσθαι ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὀρούειν (κινεῖται γάρ) ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ οὖρος εἶναι καὶ ἔσχατος ὅρος
Translation (En)
Ouranos "sky" has for etymology the fact that it is an old boundary, or the fact that, being spheric, he guards (oureî), that is, he keeps us within itself; or the fact that it is the highest (and the word horōi meaning "up" is specific to Phrygian, as Neoptolemus says in his Phrygian language); or the fact that it is seen (horâsthai); or the fact that it rushes forward (orouei), because it is moving; or the fact that it is the limit and the last boundary
Parallels
Choeroboscus, Epimerismi in Psalmos p. 79 (ὁ οὐρανός παρὰ τὸ ὁρῶ τὸ βλέπω, ὁ πᾶσιν ὁρώμενος, ἢ παρὰ τὸ οὐρῶ τὸ φυλάσσω, ὁ πάντα περιέπων, ἐξ οὗ καὶ οὖρος ὁ φύλαξ); Etym. Gudianum, omicron, p. 4410-442 (Οὐρανὸς, ὁρᾶται νοερῶς· ἢ παρὰ τὸ ὁρῶ τὸ φυλάσσω· ἢ οὐρανὸς τοῦτ’ ἔστιν ὅρασις νοῦ· ἢ διὰ τὸ ὁρᾶσθαι ἄνω, ἡ ὅρασις ἄνω κειμένη· ἢ παρὰ τὸ ὁρῶ τὸ βλέπω, ὁ πᾶσιν ὁρώμενος ἤτοι φαινόμενος, ὁρανὸς καὶ ἐν πλεονασμῷ τοῦ υ οὐρανός· καὶ ὤφειλε δασύνεσθαι, ἐπεὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁρῶ γίνεται· ἀλλὰ κανών ἐστιν ὁ λέγων, ὅτι τὸ υ πλεόναζον ψιλοῦται τὰ πρὸ ἑαυτοῦ φωνήεντα, οἷον ὄρος, οὖρος ἕκηλος, εὔκηλος, ἕαδε εὔαδε); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 642 (Οὐρανός: Παρὰ τὸ ὁρῶ, τὸ βλέπω, ὁ πᾶσιν ὁρώμενος, ἤτοι φαινόμενος· ἢ παρὰ τὸ οὐρῶ, τὸ φυλάττω, ὁ πάντα περιέπων, ὥς φησιν Ἡσίδος, ‘Γαῖα δέ [τοι] πρῶτον μὲν ἐγείνατο ἶσον ἑαυτῇ / Οὐρανὸν ἀστερόενθ’, ἵνα μὶν περὶ πάντα καλύπτοι’. Ὁ δ’ Ἡρακλείδης οὐρανόν φησι καὶ τὸν φύλακα τὸν ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς· ὅροι γὰρ (φησὶν) οἱ φυλάσσοντες τὸ ἴδιον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀλλοτρίου); Scholia in Batrachomyomachia 196 (ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐτυμολογεῖται ἀπὸ τοῦ ὁρῶ τὸ βλέπω, ὁ πᾶσιν ὁρώμενος ἤτοι φαινόμενος. ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄνω ὁρᾶσθαι).
In Plato's Timaeus 32b (συνεστήσατο οὐρανὸν ὁρατὸν καὶ ἁπτόν), it does not seem to be an implicit etymology but rather a wordplay
Comment
This is a simpler variant of Plato's etymology (see οὐρανός / ὁράω + ἄνω) which analyzes the word as a derivative instead of a compound (see also Cornutus, On Greek Theology 2). The diathesis is taken into account in this explanation (which was not the case in Plato's etymology) and the word is correctly glossed through a passive participle ὁρώμενος. It implies the same formal manipulation as Plato's etymology, namely a change of the [o] into [ou], which is accounted for in the Etym. Gudianum as an adjunction, and a loss of initial aspiration, which is accounted for in the same Etym. Gudianum by the first modification, the adjunction of [u]