Descriptive etymology: the chorus leader leads the dancers by the hand. Formally, the etymology relies on the familiar alternation between [e] and [o]. This etymology is late. Most Greek writers correctly saw that χορηγός is a compound of χορός and has nothing to do with χείρ. Compare for instance Hesychius, Lexicon, chi 641 (χορηγός· διδάσκαλος. καὶ ὁ ἐπιδούς τι τῶν ἰδίων (Antiphan. fr. 202, 5 K.—A.). τοῦ χοροῦ ἐξάρχων), or Suda, chi 400 (Χορηγός: ὁ τοῦ χοροῦ ἡγούμενος, καὶ δοτήρ), or the scholion to Sophocles' Antigone 1145 (χοραγὲ τὸν χορὸν ἄγων). The first attestation for a derivation of χορός from χείρ is found in Choeroboscus (see χορός / χείρ), and χορηγός is not mentioned. This may be related to the semantic evolution of χορηγός, which came to mean "donator", disconnected from anything lice dance or choirs: for this meaning "donator" it was logical (in the Greek perspective) to seek an etymon compatible with that meaning, and "hand", as the "giving" body-part, is compatible