Etymologically
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αἰπόλος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ai̯.pó.los/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ɛˈpo.los/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /eˈpo.los/[1]

Forms

αἰπόλος (aipólos) m (genitive αἰπόλου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek αἴξ (aíx, “goat”) + -πόλος (-pólos, “tending”), from an older *αἰγπολος (*aigpolos).[2][3] The second part belongs to πέλω (pélō, “to move, be”), as in βουκόλος (boukólos, “cowherd”).[2][4] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *-kʷolos (“-herd”), from *kʷel- (“to turn, cultivate”).[1] Beekes notes that the type is old.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, meaning a goatherd.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The word keeps its sense throughout antiquity: Homer, Herodotus, Plato, Isaeus and Menander use it, sometimes with a genitive “of goats”.[3][6] Theocritus' first Idyll addresses a goatherd.[7][3] The Septuagint uses it in the book of Amos.[6] Hesychius records a Cypriot sense “retail trader”, which Beekes finds unclear.[6][2] From it come αἰπολέω (aipoléō, “to herd goats”) and αἰπόλιον (aipólion, “herd of goats”).[2]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a goatherd.[5][7]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it.[6][4]
  • 4th century BC – Plato uses it in the Laws.[6][4]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus addresses a goatherd in his first Idyll.[7][4]
  • 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius records a Cypriot sense, “retail trader”.[6][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A goatherd.[6][3][5]
  2. (Cypriot) A retail trader, according to Hesychius.[6]

Word family

  • αἰπολέω (aipoléō)
  • αἰπόλιον (aipólion)
  • αἰπολικός (aipolikós)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  5. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux