Perhaps fromProto-Indo-European*h₁ergʰ-(“to mount”),^[1] whence also perhapsHittite[script needed](arkatta,“tomountsexually”).^[2] Frisk suggests that term may constitute an iterative-intensive formation fromἔρχομαι(érkhomai,“to come, go”), for which see there for more. Watkins posits a connection withὄρχις(órkhis,“testicle”), which appears semantically tenuous.^[3]

ὀρχέομαι• (orkhéomai)

1. todance
   • 408BCE – 334BCE,Antiphanes Comicus,Collected Works 113.1
   • 250CE – 350CE,Athenaeus,Deipnosophistae 4.155b
   • 250CE – 350CE,Athenaeus,Deipnosophistae 14.631d
   • Euph. 87
   • 460BCE – 420BCE,Herodotus,Histories1.66
   • 750BCE – 650BCE,Hesiod,Theogony4
   • 800BCE – 600BCE,Homer,Iliad18.594
   • 800BCE – 600BCE,Homer,Odyssey8.371
   • 800BCE – 600BCE,Homer,Odyssey14.465
   • 430BCE – 354BCE,Xenophon,Cyropaedia1.3.10
   • 430BCE – 354BCE,Xenophon,Cyropaedia8.4.12
   • 430BCE – 354BCE,Xenophon,Symposium7.5
2. torepresent by dancing orpantomime
   • 125CE – 200CE,Lucian,The Dance80
3. (figuratively) toleap,bound
   • 458BCE,Aeschylus,The Libation Bearers166
   • 310BCE – 240BCE,Callimachus,Del. 139
4. (active voice) to cause to dance

According to Beekes, the term primarily means "tomount" in inscriptions.

• “ὀρχέομαι”, inLiddell & Scott (1940),A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ὀρχέομαι”, inLiddell & Scott (1889),An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ὀρχέομαι”, inAutenrieth, Georg (1891),A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ὀρχέομαι inBailly, Anatole (1935),Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ὀρχέομαι inCunliffe, Richard J. (1924),A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published1963
• G3738 inStrong, James (1979),Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• ὀρχέομαι, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese),University of Chicago, since 2011

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