εὔχεσθαι, αὐχή and αὐχεῖν

Semantic Range, Lexicography, and other approaches to word meaning - in general, or for particular words.
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cwconrad
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εὔχεσθαι, αὐχή and αὐχεῖν

Post by cwconrad »

The current thread on"Turning Greek Prayers into Prayers in Greek" viewtopic.php?f=47&t=3375&sid=25b299f8b ... a585fedaefι prompts me to raise a question I've long pondered without satisfaction: the standard phrasing for "prayer" in ancient Greek is εὐχή, εὔχεσθαι, the standard NT verb being προσεύχεσθαι. The primary sense of εὐχή/εὔχεσθαι is "pray" but εὑχεσθαι also may be used in the sense of "boast" or "assert forcefully (about oneself)" Another lexical pair is αὐχή/αὐχεῖν, which carries the meaning, "boast, preen oneself." I'm not away of other cognates of either of these groups, but I do wonder whether there's an etymological link between them.
οὔτοι ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς πάντα θεοὶ θνητοῖς ὑπέδειξαν,
ἀλλὰ χρόνῳ ζητέοντες ἐφευρίσκουσιν ἄμεινον. (Xenophanes, Fragment 16)

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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