ὄρχος
Word
Validation
Word-form
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
English translation (word)
Transliteration (Etymon)
English translation (etymon)
Century
Source
Ref.
Ed.
Quotation
Ὀρχήσασθαι. παρὰ τὸ ὀρέγειν καὶ ἐκτείνειν τὰς χεῖρας. ἢ παρὰ τοὺς ὄρχους, ἐν οἷς ἐχόρευον, καὶ ὁ χορὸς, ὀρχός τις ἐστὶ, κατὰ μετάθεσιν στοιχείου.
Translation (En)
Orkhēsasthai "to dance": from "to stretch" (oregein) and extend the hands (kheiras). Or from the rows (orkhous) in which they were dancing – and the choir (khoros) is an *orkhos "dance", as it were, through metathesis of the letter
Parallels
Etym. Gudianum, omicron, p. 437 (idem); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges, p. 634 (Ὀρχηστής: Τὴν τάξιν τῆς φυτείας ὀρχοὺς εἰώθασι λέγειν οἱ ποιηταί· καὶ οἱ ὀρχησταὶ ἐντεῦθεν, ὅτι κατὰ τὴν τῶν βοτρύων συγκομιδὴν ἐν τοῖς τόποις τούτοις, ἐπειδὰν ἔτυχον τρυγῶντες, ἀπήρχοντο τῷ θεῷ χορεύοντες, καθάπερ κωμῳδοί· ἐξ οὗ καὶ τὸ ὀρχῶ ὀρχήσω. Οἱ δὲ, παρὰ τὸ ὀρέγειν καὶ ἐκτείνειν τὰς χεῖρας, κατὰ τροπὴν τοῦ γ εἰς χ); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, omicron, p. 1472 (idem)
Bibliography
On the relationship between ὀρχέομαι "to dance" (in a row) and ὄρχος "row", see Le Feuvre, Ὅμηρος δύσγνωστος. Réinterprétations de termes homériques à date archaïque et classique, Geneva, Droz, 2015, p. 520
Comment
The verb is assumed to be derived from the word meaning "row, line", referring to the position of dancers. This descriptive etymology requires no formal manipulation, is morphologically regular from our modern point of view, and the original meaning would be "to walk/move in a row"