ἄγγαρος 2 <Semitic?; Classical/Hellenistic period>
👉 ἄγγαρος [probably --⏑ or, according to another view, -⏑⏑] m. – ‘workman, labourer, servant; stupid man’ (Men., fr. 164 and 312; Cyrill. α 137 s.v. ἄγγαρος; Hsch. α 374a s.v. ἄγγαρος; etc.); ἀγγαρεία f. ‘impressment for the public service, expropriation’ (Temple of Hibis 1.21 (gen. pl. ἀν̣γα[ρ]ειῶν): 1st c. CE; Arr., Epict. 4.1.79; Suda α 162 s.v. ἀγγαρεία and α 163 s.v. ἀγγαρος; etc.), ἀνγάριος, -α, -ον ‘impressed for public service’ (P.Cair.Isidor. 73.12: 4th c. CE), cf. EM 7: ἀγγάρους: (...) ἀγγάριος. δοῦλος. ἢ ἄγγελος. – “angarios (means) slave or messenger”; ἀγγαρεύω ‘to press into service’ (Men., Sic. fr. 4.2; NT: Matth. 5.41 and 27.32; etc.) and ἀγγαριεύω ‘id.’ (P.Cair.Isidor. 72_5.32: 4th c. CE); ἀγγαροφορέω ‘to carry burdens; to have a hard life’ (Men., fr. 316.1; Procop., De aed. 2.4; Procop., Hist. arc. 30.16; Ael. Dion. α 16 s.v. ἄγγαροι; etc.). There are also attested some forms with ἐγγ- instead of ἀγγ-, e.g., ἐγγαρεία (or -ία, -έα) = ἀγγαρεία (P.Fuad I Univ. 6.6, prob. 3rd c. CE: gen. sg. ἐγγαρέας; BGU 1 21.3.16, 4th c. CE: gen. sg. ἐνγαρίας), ἐγγαρεύω = ἀγγαρεύω (C.Ord.Ptol. 53.182 and 252: 2nd c. BCE; BGU 7 1568.4-5, 3rd cent.: ἐνγ-). Cf. Hsch. α 333 s.v. †ἄγαρος, α 334 s.v. †ἀγαρροί and α 372 s.v. ἀγγαρρία. See also Latin angario, -āre ‘to press into service’.
🅔 It is likely that ἄγγαρος ‘workman’ is etymologically different from ἄγγαρος ‘courier’ and, perhaps, it is a distorted Semitic word – Akkadian agru(m) ‘hired man, hireling’, Jewish Aramaic ʾăḡîrā ‘hired labourer’, ʾăḡîr ‘hired man’, Syriac ʾāgīrā ‘hired person; catechumen’ etc.; cf. Akkadian agāru(m) ‘to hire, rent’, Jewish Aramaic ʾgr ‘id.’, ʾăḡār, det. ʾăḡərā ‘payment for hire, reward, profit’, Syriac ʾgr ‘to hire, rent’, ʾagrā ‘hire wages, price, payment’ etc. Phonetically, we would expect in Greek *ἄγιρος or *ἄγρος (cf. the glosses †ἄγαρος and †ἀγαρροί quoted above); it is possible that -γγ- /ŋg/ instead of -γ- was due to a merger with ἄγγαρος ‘courier’; the same may apply to the vowel -α-. In the history of research, ἄγγαρος ‘workman’ is commonly not divided from ἄγγαρος ‘courier’; for more, see ἄγγαρος 1. The forms with ἐγγ- (and ἐνγ-) might have taken shape under the influence of compounds with the preverb ἐν-.
📖 Data: CAD: I.1, 148-148 and 151-153; CDA: 6; DJBA: 79f.; DJPA: 34f.; SL: 7f. Ref.: cf. Brust 2008: 24f; DELG: 8; EDG: 9; Eilers 1961-62: 225, n. 31; GEW: I, 7f. and III, 16; Huyse 1993: 272, n. 2; Mancini 1995-96: 210; Rosół 2013: 156f.; Schmitt 1971: 98; Zimmern 1917: 7 and 47