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