οὐρά

See also: ούρα and ουρά

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers- (“tail, butt”) (alternatively reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *h₃érsos (“backside, buttocks”)), and related to ὄρρος (órrhos, “butt, ass”); see there for more. The connection with οὐραχός (ourakhós, “urachus”), while semantically sound, is phonetically unclear, due to the latter's strange suffix -αχός (-akhós), which has led Beekes to consider a possible Pre-Greek origin for the words (though he still seems to favor Indo-European origin for οὐρά (ourá), at least).^[1]

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /uː.rǎː/ → /uˈra/ → /uˈra/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /uː.rǎː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /uˈra/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /uˈra/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /uˈra/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /uˈra/

• Hyphenation: οὐ‧ρά

Noun

οὐρᾱ́ • (ourā́) f (genitive οὐρᾶς); first declension

1. the tail (of a lion, dog, etc.)
2. (of an army marching) the rear-guard, rear

Declension

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ οὐρᾱ́ hē ourā́	τὼ οὐρᾱ́ tṑ ourā́	αἱ οὐραί hai ouraí
Genitive	τῆς οὐρᾶς tês ourâs	τοῖν οὐραῖν toîn ouraîn	τῶν οὐρῶν tôn ourôn
Dative	τῇ οὐρᾷ têi ourâi	τοῖν οὐραῖν toîn ouraîn	ταῖς οὐραῖς taîs ouraîs
Accusative	τὴν οὐρᾱ́ν tḕn ourā́n	τὼ οὐρᾱ́ tṑ ourā́	τᾱ̀ς οὐρᾱ́ς tā̀s ourā́s
Vocative	οὐρᾱ́ ourā́	οὐρᾱ́ ourā́	οὐραί ouraí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

First declension of ἡ οὐρᾱ́; τῆς οὐρᾶς (Attic)

Derived terms

• ἀλωπέκουρος (alōpékouros)
• κόλουρος (kólouros)
• μᾰκρόουρος (măkróouros)
• οὐραχός (ourakhós)
• οὐροβόρος (ourobóros)
• σκίουρος (skíouros)

 

Descendants

• Greek: ουρά (ourá)
• Latin: Ischnura
• Translingual: Lagurus
• Translingual: Anura

References

1. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “οὐρά”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 1127-8

Further reading

• “οὐρά”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “οὐρά”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• οὐρά in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• G3769 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • rear idem, page 676.
  • tail idem, page 852.