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Γόριλλαι

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Etymology and origin of the Ancient Greek word Γόριλλαι

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
300s BC Hanno, Periplus More words from the 4th century BC
From the same root
English gorilla ← Γόριλλαι

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ɡó.ril.lai̯/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈɣo.ril.lɛ/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈɣo.ril.le/[1]

Forms

Γόριλλαι (Górillai) f pl (genitive Γοριλλῶν); first declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[1][2] Wiktionary considers the name probably Punic, and perhaps taken over by Punic from an African word used for hairy people.[1][2] The Greek Wiktionary likewise calls it of unknown origin, probably Carthaginian and ultimately African.[2] Etymonline also reports that it was said to be an African word.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only ancient record is the Greek version of the Periplus of the Carthaginian navigator Hanno, an account of a voyage along the west coast of Africa, where it names wild, hairy beings, mostly women, found on an island.[4][3][5] LSJ glosses it as a tribe of hairy women, but adds that the creatures were probably apes.[4]

Semantic evolution

The word passed from Hanno's text into Latin gorilla, the source of English gorilla, French gorille and Italian gorilla.[1] In 1847 the American missionary Thomas Savage applied it to a species of large African ape, the gorilla.[3] Etymonline notes that Hanno's creatures are now thought to have been chimpanzees.[3]

Timeline

  • 4th century BC – The Greek text of Hanno's Periplus, as dated in the GLAUx corpus, names the hairy people of an African island.[5][4]
  • 1847 – Thomas Savage uses the word for the large African ape, and English takes it over as gorilla.[3]

Meanings

Proper noun

  1. The Gorillai, a tribe of hairy women on an island off West Africa, described by Hanno; probably a kind of ape.[4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
Cite this entry

“Γόριλλαι.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/grc/%CE%93%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%B1%CE%B9. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

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