Greek Word of the Week 009 ὄνομά σοι τί ἐστιν; what's your name? (Patreon)

Greek WotW 009

ὄνομά σοι τί ἐστιν; what’s your name?

Ὦ ξένε, ὄνομά σοι τί ἐστιν; What’s your name, stranger? How would your respond to this?

Ὄνομα looks like Latin nōmen and English name, but is it related? It is! The Proto-Indo-European root is *h₃nómn̥. That initial laryngeal h3 was probably pronounced /ɣʷ/, and it was lost entirely in Germanic and Latin, but in Proto-Greek is was vocalized into an /o/ sound.

Ὄνομά σοι τί ἐστιν; Ὄνομά μοι Λούκιος. Now it’s your turn! Χαῖρ’, ὤριστε, καὶ χάριν σοι ἔχω.