ὀπός

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From earlier *ὁπός (*hopós), which underwent Ionic psilosis. From Proto-Indo-European *sokʷos (“juice, resin”). Cognate with Russian сок (sok) and possibly Latin sūcus.

Noun

ὀπός • (opós) m (genitive ὀποῦ); second declension

1. juice, vegetable/plant juice
2. (in particular) fig-juice (which can be used as rennet)
   • Iliad, 5.902–904:

     ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ὀπὸς γάλα λευκὸν ἐπειγόμενος συνέπηξεν

     ὑγρὸν ἐόν, μάλα δ᾽ ὦκα περιτρέφεται κυκόωντι,

     ὣς ἄρα καρπαλίμως ἰήσατο θοῦρον Ἄρηα.

     Robert Fagles’ translation (1990):

     Quickly as fig-juice, pressed into bubbly, creamy milk,

     curdles it firm for the man who churns it round,

     so quickly he healed the violent rushing Ares.

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ ὀπός; τοῦ ὀποῦ (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ὀπός ho opós	τὼ ὀπώ tṑ opṓ	οἱ ὀποί hoi opoí
Genitive	τοῦ ὀποῦ toû opoû	τοῖν ὀποῖν toîn opoîn	τῶν ὀπῶν tôn opôn
Dative	τῷ ὀπῷ tôi opôi	τοῖν ὀποῖν toîn opoîn	τοῖς ὀποῖς toîs opoîs
Accusative	τὸν ὀπόν tòn opón	τὼ ὀπώ tṑ opṓ	τοὺς ὀπούς toùs opoús
Vocative	ὀπέ opé	ὀπώ opṓ	ὀποί opoí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• ὄπιον (ópion)
• ὀποβᾰ́λσᾰμον (opobálsamon)
• ὀποπᾰ́νᾰξ (opopánax)

 

Further reading

• “ὀπός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ὀπός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ὀπός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ὀπός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ὀπός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ὀπός in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • fig idem, page 318.
  • juice idem, page 465.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN