ὄρχις

See also: όρχις

Ancient Greek

From Proto-Indo-European *h₁órǵʰis (“testicle”). Cognates include Old Armenian որձիք (orjikʻ, “idem”), Avestan 𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬰𐬌 (ər^əzi), Hittite [script needed] (arkiš), Albanian herdhe, and Irish uirghe.^[1]

The "orchid" sense is likely for the characteristically oblong shape of the plant's roots.

ὄρχις • (órkhis) m or f (genitive ὄρχεως or ὄρχῐος); third declension

Third declension of ὁ, ἡ ὄρχῐς; τοῦ, τῆς ὄρχεως (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ, ἡ ὄρχῐς ho, hē órkhĭs	τὼ ὄρχει tṑ órkhei	οἱ, αἱ ὄρχεις hoi, hai órkheis
Genitive	τοῦ, τῆς ὄρχεως toû, tês órkheōs	τοῖν ὀρχέοιν toîn orkhéoin	τῶν ὄρχεων tôn órkheōn
Dative	τῷ, τῇ ὄρχει tōî, tēî órkhei	τοῖν ὀρχέοιν toîn orkhéoin	τοῖς, ταῖς ὄρχεσῐ / ὄρχεσῐν toîs, taîs órkhesĭ(n)
Accusative	τὸν, τὴν ὄρχῐν tòn, tḕn órkhĭn	τὼ ὄρχει tṑ órkhei	τοὺς, τᾱ̀ς ὄρχεις toùs, tā̀s órkheis
Vocative	ὄρχῐ órkhĭ	ὄρχει órkhei	ὄρχεις órkheis
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ὄρχις, -εως”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1116

“ὄρχις”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ὄρχις”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
ὄρχις in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ὄρχις 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
ὄρχις, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011