οἶκος

Etymology

From ϝοῖκος (woîkos), from Proto-Indo-European *weyḱ-. Cognates include Latin vīcus, whence English wick (“village”); Sanskrit विश् (viś) and वेश (veśa); and Gothic 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌷𐍃 (weihs).

Pronunciation

Noun

οἶκος • (oîkos) m (genitive οἴκου); second declension

1. house or dwelling place
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 24.471

     γέρων δ’ ἰθὺς κίεν οἴκου

     gérōn d’ ithùs kíen oíkou

     but the old man went straight toward the house

   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 23.7

     ἦλθ’ Ὀδυσεὺς καὶ οἶκον ἱκάνεται

     êlth’ Oduseùs kaì oîkon hikánetai

     Odysseus is here, and has come home

   1. room, chamber
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 1.356

        ἀλλ’ εἰς οἶκον ἰοῦσα τὰ σ’ αὐτῆς ἔργα κόμιζε

        all’ eis oîkon ioûsa tà s’ autês érga kómize

        But go to thy chamber, and busy thyself with thine own tasks

   2. meeting house, hall; monument
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 8.143
   • 408 BCE, Euripides, The Phoenician Women 1373
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 600
   • 70 CE – 110 CE, The Gospel of Matthew 21:13
   • 100 BCE – 1 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, Library 1.51
   1. birdcage
      • 100 BCE – 1 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, Library 13.82
   2. (astrology) domicile of a planet
      • 175 CE – 235 CE, Claudius Aelianus, On the Nature of Animals 12.7
      • 120 CE – 175 CE, Vettius Valens, Anthology 7.25
      • 300 CE – 500 CE, Book of Sothis 2.141
      • 1115 – 1195, Eustathius of Thessalonica, Collected Works 162.2
2. estate, inheritance
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.64

     οὐδ’ ἔτι καλῶς οἶκος ἐμὸς διόλωλε

     oud’ éti kalôs oîkos emòs diólōle

     and past all that is seemly has my estate been destroyed

3. reigning house or family
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 5.31.4

     σὺ ἐς οἶκον τὸν βασιλέος ἐξηγητὴς γίνεαι πρηγμάτων ἀγαθῶν

     sù es oîkon tòn basiléos exēgētḕs gíneai prēgmátōn agathôn

     This plan which you set forth is profitable for the king's house

Further reading

• οἶκος in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• οἶκος in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• οἶκος in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• οἶκος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• οἶκος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• οἶκος in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3624 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• οἶκος 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, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • abode idem, page 2.
  • apartment idem, page 33.
  • cabinet idem, page 108.
  • chamber idem, page 123.
  • domicile idem, page 247.
  • dwelling idem, page 257.
  • establishment idem, page 283.
  • estate idem, page 283.
  • family idem, page 305.
  • govern idem, page 367.
  • habitation idem, page 380.
  • home idem, page 403.
  • house idem, page 408.
  • household idem, page 408.
  • residence idem, page 701.
  • room idem, page 721.
  • saloon idem, page 732.
• BDAG
• 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