ἄρσην

• ἄρρην (árrhēn) – Attic
• ἄρσης (ársēs) – Laconian
• ἔρσην (érsēn) – Aeolic, Cretan, Epidaurian, Herodotus
• ἄρσηνος (ársēnos)

From Proto-Indo-European *wr̥s-, zero-grade of *wers- (“male”). Cognates include Sanskrit ऋषभ (ṛṣabha), वृषन् (vṛṣan), वृष (vṛṣa), Latin verrēs, Old Persian [script needed] (aršan), and Old Armenian առն (aṙn).

ᾰ̓́ρσην • (ársēn) m or f (neuter ᾰ̓́ρσεν); third declension

(Epic, Ionic, Tragic)

1. male
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 8.7:

     μήτέ τις οὖν θήλεια θεὸς τό γε μήτέ τις ἄρσην πειράτω διακέρσαι ἐμὸν ἔπος

     mḗté tis oûn thḗleia theòs tó ge mḗté tis ársēn peirátō diakérsai emòn épos

     Let no god, neither female nor male, essay to thwart my word.

2. masculine, manly, strong
   • 408 BCE, Euripides, Orestes 1204:

     ὦ τὰς φρένας μὲν ἄρσενας κεκτημένη, τὸ σῶμα δ᾽ ἐν γυναιξὶ θηλείαις πρέπον

     ô tàs phrénas mèn ársenas kektēménē, tò sôma d᾽ en gunaixì thēleíais prépon

     O you that have a masculine spirit, though your body shows you to be a woman!

3. (of plants) coarse, tough
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 1196:

     πολλὴν μὲν ὕλην τῆς βαθυρρίζου δρυὸς κείραντα, πολλὸν δ᾽ ἄρσεν᾽ ἐκτεμόνθ᾽ ὁμοῦ ἄγριον ἔλαιον

     pollḕn mèn húlēn tês bathurrhízou druòs keíranta, pollòn d᾽ ársen᾽ ektemónth᾽ homoû ágrion élaion

     There hew the wood of deeply-rooted oaks and slash the trunks of wild tough olive trees.

4. (grammar) masculine
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 682:

     ἔτι δή γε περὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων μαθεῖν σε δεῖ, ἅττ᾽ ἄρρεν᾽ ἐστίν, ἅττα δ᾽ αὐτῶν θήλεα

     éti dḗ ge perì tôn onomátōn matheîn se deî, hátt᾽ árrhen᾽ estín, hátta d᾽ autôn thḗlea

     You must learn one thing more about names, what are masculine and what of them are feminine.

• ἀρσενικός (arsenikós), ἀρρενικός (arrhenikós)
• ἀρσενογενής (arsenogenḗs)

• θῆλυς (thêlus)

• ἀνήρ (anḗr, “male”)

• ἄρσην in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ἄρσην in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἄρσην in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἄρσην in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• ἄρσην in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ἄρσην in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2019)
• G730 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • male idem, page 510.
  • masculine idem, page 516.
  • sex idem, page 759.
• 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