Etymologically
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βύβλος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /bý.blos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈβy.βlos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈvy.vlos/[1]

Forms

βῠ́βλος (búblos) f (genitive βῠ́βλου); second declension[1] Also βίβλος, and with a nasal βίμβλις ‘cords of papyrus’.[2][3] The forms with βυβλ- are the original ones; βιβλ- arose in Attic by assimilation in βιβλίον and prevails in the Ptolemaic papyri.[2]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, because of the variation of ⟨υ⟩ and ⟨ι⟩ in βύβλος and βίβλος (bíblos) and the prenasalized forms such as βίμβλις (bímblis).[3]

The traditional view is that the papyrus was named after the Phoenician port of Byblos, Ancient Greek Βύβλος (Búblos), from which it was shipped to Greece.[3][1][4] The town's own name was Phoenician 𐤂𐤁𐤋 (gbl), Akkadian Gublu in Akkadian, and that requires the sound /gu/ heard by the Greeks as /gʷu/ or an assimilation of g-b to b-b.[3][4] E. Masson concluded that the word is of unknown origin and that the town was named after it rather than the reverse.[3][1] Etymonline calls the Greek name of the town a corruption of the Phoenician one.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective βύβλινος (búblinos) ‘made of papyrus’ already occurs in the Odyssey.[3] The noun first appears in Aeschylus' Suppliants, for the papyrus plant.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus describes the Egyptian papyrus as a plant, a food and a fibre for ropes, and uses the word for the sheets made of its pith and for a written roll.[2][7] From the roll it came to mean a book, a work in writing, and a book as a part of a longer work, as in the nine books of Herodotus.[7][2] In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is a sacred book: the book of Moses, of the Psalms, of life.[2][8]

Its diminutive βιβλίον (biblíon) became the ordinary word for a book; its plural, through Latin biblia, gave the English Bible.[5] The Modern Greek βίβλος (vívlos) is learned and is used for a published collection of official documents, such as a “white book”.[9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey uses the derived adjective βύβλινος ‘made of papyrus’.[3]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for the papyrus plant and for a roll.[2][7][4]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus describes the plant and uses it for papyrus sheets and books.[2][7][4]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for the rind of the papyrus.[2][4]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a book as a division of a work.[2][7][4]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of the book of Moses and the book of life.[2][8]
  • Early 14th century – English Bible is first recorded; it goes back to the plural of the diminutive βιβλίον.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The Egyptian papyrus plant; in the plural, papyrus stalks.[2][7]
  2. Papyrus fibre or rind; generally, bark.[2][7]
  3. A papyrus sheet used as writing material.[2][7]
  4. A papyrus roll; a book, a written work.[2][7]
  5. A sacred or revered book; in the Septuagint and New Testament, the Scriptures.[2][7][8]
  6. A book as a division of a longer work.[2][7]

Word family

  • βύβλινος (búblinos)
  • βιβλίον (biblíon)
  • βίβλος (bíblos)
  • πάπυρος (pápūros)
  • English Bible

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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
  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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki