Etymologically
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βασιλεύς

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ba.si.lěu̯s/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /βa.siˈleɸs/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /va.siˈlefs/[1]

Forms

βᾰσῐλεύς (basileús) m (genitive βᾰσῐλέως); third declension[1] Mycenaean Greek qa-si-re-u, that is /gʷasileus/.[2][3][4] Epic genitive βασιλῆος, Cyprian βασιλῆϝος; old Attic nominative plural βασιλῆς.[5][6]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[7][8] Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek: the Mycenaean form Mycenaean Greek qa-si-re-u shows an initial labiovelar, which is common in Pre-Greek words, -ιλ- is a Pre-Greek suffix, and the word ends in -εύς (-eús).[2][9] He stresses that this means a word of the earlier population of Greece, not a loanword from another country.[9] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Hellenic *gʷatiléus, with σ from τ by assibilation.[1]

Chantraine thinks it vain to seek an etymology: the word seems borrowed, like τύραννος (túrannos) and ἄναξ (ánax), although the Mycenaean labiovelar could suggest an Indo-European origin.[7] Frisk notes that βασιλεύς is the youngest of the three Greek words for “king”, beside the inherited κοίρανος (koíranos) and the unexplained, probably foreign word for “lord” named above; all attempts to derive it from Indo-European have failed, and those that look to Asia Minor or elsewhere (Kretschmer compared the Libyan word βάττος (báttos), “king”, in Herodotus) remain guesses, so that it must be regarded as a foreign word.[8] The DGE also calls a substrate origin the most common view.[4]

Ancient writers derived it from βάσις (básis) “foundation” and λαός (laós) “people”, as the support of the people (in Choeroboscus and an etymologicon), among other combinations.[10] Babiniotis calls these popular etymologies.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Pylos tablets Mycenaean Greek qa-si-re-u is the title of a local chief or official below the king.[3][11] In Homer it is the king or chief of a people, and also a man of the ruling class: there are many βασιλῆες in Ithaca.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Hesiod the βασιλῆες are the lords who also sit as judges.[5] Zeus is “king of the gods” from Hesiod on, where Homer uses ἄναξ (ánax).[5] After the Persian Wars βασιλεύς without the article meant the king of Persia, the Great King.[5][6] Aristotle sets the hereditary king against the τύραννος (túrannos), though Pindar and Herodotus give the title to tyrants such as Hiero and Gelo.[5] At Athens the king archon was the second of the nine archons, and the title was used for magistrates in other cities too.[5]

Alexander's successors bore it as a title, and it was also used for the Roman emperors.[5][5] The Septuagint and the New Testament use it for earthly kings, for Pharaoh and Herod, and for God, Revelation has “King of kings”.[12][13][14] Aristotle also uses it for the wren and the queen bee.[5]

Medieval Greek made βασιλέας, which became Modern Greek βασιλιάς (vasiliás) by synizesis; the ancient form is kept as a learned word.[15][16][11]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean period – Mycenaean Greek qa-si-re-u names a local chief in the Pylos tablets.[3][4]
  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for kings and chiefs.[5][6][17]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod calls Zeus king of the gods.[5][4]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it, without the article, for the king of Persia.[5][6][4]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle distinguishes the king from the tyrant, and uses the word for the wren and the queen bee.[5][4]
  • 1st century AD – Papyri call the Roman emperor βασιλεὺς Ῥωμαίων; the New Testament calls God king.[6][5][13]
  • Medieval Greek – The form βασιλέας appears, the ancestor of Modern Greek βασιλιάς (vasiliás).[15][16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A king, chief, ruler of a people.[5][6]
  2. A man of royal or ruling rank, a prince.[5][6]
  3. Of the gods: Zeus as king of the gods, and (Koine) God, Christ.[5][13]
  4. The king of Persia, the Great King.[5][6]
  5. A Hellenistic king, and (Roman period) the Roman emperor.[5]
  6. At Athens, the second archon, the king archon; a magistrate in other Greek states.[5]
  7. A lord or master; the first of any class, such as the winner of a game or the master of a drinking party.[5]
  8. The wren.[5]
  9. The queen bee.[5]

Word family

  • βασίλεια (basíleia)
  • βασιλεία (basileíā)
  • βασίλειον (basíleion)
  • βασίλειος (basíleios)
  • βασιλευτός (basileutós)
  • βασιλεύω (basileúō)
  • βασιλίζω (basilízō)
  • βασιλικός (basilikós)
  • βασιλίς (basilís)
  • βασιλίσκος (basilískos)
  • βασίλισσα (basílissa)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  4. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ a b Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
  8. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  9. ^ a b 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
  10. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  11. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  12. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  13. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  14. ^ Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  15. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  16. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  17. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux