Is there any particular standard way of expressing “enough” in the Homeric dialect? I’ve tried searching in the archive.org text of Cunliffe and also checking Woodhouse and Perseus. Perseus seems to suggest that the verb ἀποχράω and ἐξαρκέω are the most common ways to express this concept, but neither of these are Homeric. For the Homeric vocabulary, I’ve come up with the following:
ἅδην - to satiety; enough
ἅλις - can mean either in plenty, scads of, etc., or just enough
ἄρκιος - means enough, sufficient (modern αρκετά)
ἐπιτηδές - Cunliffe seems to indicate that it’s unclear whether this means enough or purposely.
All of these are pretty rare except for ἅλις, and according to Cunliffe ἅλις is only used about 6 times to mean simply “enough.” In all, Cunliffe only seems to show about 15 cases where any of these words is used to express the simple meaning “enough” in Homer, and that doesn’t seem like enough for a text of this length.
Is there some other word I’m missing? Maybe a verb?
In case it’s useful to others, here’s a summary of what I’ve found out by looking around at dictionaries and following the leads supplied by Aetos. I’ve added a little of the info below to Wiktionary.
Homer uses a wide variety of verbs and adjectives to express the concept “enough.” The neutral word without poetic connotations is ἄρκιος (modern αρκετά), but this is rare in Homer. The adjective ἄδην/ἅδην and verbs ἆσαι and κορεσσάμην connote satiety or having enough food to flourish. The basic meaning of ἅλις is “in crowds,” and comes from the idea of being pressed in, as in the cognates εἴλω and helix.
The word ἆσαι is an aorist infinitive. It is cognate with ‘sate,’ and also with French assez, enough, and Italian assai, very. Homer uses the verb mainly in the aorist and mainly in the infinitive in all tenses. About half of all usages are the aorist infinitive ἆσαι. Present finite ἄω is a fictitious dictionary form. The word is used by Homer mostly in two set phrases, αἵματος ἆσαι Ἄρηα, to sate Ares with blood, and λιλαιόμενα χροὸς ἆσαι, anxious to sate themselves with flesh (said of spears). The accusative is used for the one being sated, and the genitive for the thing they are sated with.
The verb κορεσσάμην means to have enough and connotes flourishing and growth because one has enough food. It is cognate with cereal and the noun κόρος, meaning one’s fill, as well as κούρη, meaning a growing girl, and words like crescent and crescendo. The middle is most common, but the passive and medio-passive also occur. The active, to satiate, is uncommon and occurs mainly in the future. The present κορέννυμι does not exist in Homer.
The rare word ἐπιτηδές occurs only twice in Homer, and probably means sufficient in number in at least one of these cases.
As an added note, I learned that there is the verb ἀρκέω, but Homer apparently uses it only once to mean “to suffice.” Usually in Homer it means to ward off or defend.
