https://biblehub.com/greek/264.htmHELPS Word-studies
Cognate: 264 hamartánō (from 1 /A "not" and 3313 /méros, "a part, share") – properly, having no share in; to sin, which always brings forfeiture – i.e. eternal loss due to missing God's mark. Like 266 /hamartía, 264 (hamartánō) is regularly used in ancient times of an archer missing the target (Homer, Aesch., etc). Every decision (action) done apart from faith (4102 /pístis) is sin (Ro 14:23; cf. Heb 11:6). See 266 (hamartia).
This appears to be from a publication called HELPS Word-studies devotional lexicon. But, I can't seem to find much information on it. Apparently this 'lexicon' comes with some translation called the Discovery Bible: https://tdb2018.thediscoverybible.com/ ... d-studies/
Wiktionary says that Beekes reconstructs ἁμαρτάνω in PIE as *h₂mert- (“miss, fail”) - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ἁμαρτάνω.
μέρος > μείρομαι has a reconstructed PIE form *(s)mer- (“to assign, allot”) - https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/μείρομαι/Ancient_Greek
HELPS Word-studies is deducing that (etymologically) the ἁ in ἁμαρτάνω (with rough breathing) is an alpha privative (with smooth breathing); and that the rest of the word (*μαρτάνω) comes from μέρος.
I suppose the postulated connection is from *(s)mer- to *h₂mert-. But, I'm not sure how this is valid for etymology within the development of Greek itself, or if the connection is isolated further back in IE or PIE.
I have a (Modern Greek) Lexicon of Ancient Greek Verbs that lists the etymology as follows:
That does posit a transition from ἀ (smooth breathing) to ἁ (rough breathing), where the alpha privative was added to *σμαρ, or to *(s)mer-Από ρ. σμαρ- (ή μερ- > μέρος, σε-σμαρ-ται > εἵμαρται, ΠΡΚ. του μείρομαι), με το στερ. α και τα προσφ. -τ- και -αν- > ἀ-σμαρ-τ-άν-ω > ἁμαρτάνω, με τροπή σου σ σε δασεία. [...]
IE. ρ. smer-/mer-
Can anyone shed light on this etymology? How speculative is it? Is the etymology, as described in HELPS valid and/or warranted, with respect to Greek?