Etymologically
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βῶλος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /bɔ̂ː.los/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈβo.los/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈvo.los/[1]

Forms

βῶλος (bôlos) f (genitive βώλου); second declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3] The original sense is precise, a ball or lump of earth.[3] Beekes thinks a connection with βολβός (bolbós, “bulb”) unlikely, and Chantraine and the DGE also mention βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), but Chantraine adds that the initial consonant was probably a labiovelar.[2][3][4]

Wiktionary calls it a candidate for Pre-Greek origin, or else derives it from an expressive root Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to swell”), comparing Latin bulla (“bubble, knob”).[1]

Philoxenus derived it from a verb “to feed”, because clods make the crops grow, and explained Homer's epithet of the earth ἐρίβωλος (eríbōlos) in this way.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is the Odyssey (18.374), where Odysseus imagines a field whose earth gives way before the plough.[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is a lump of earth, a clod, also thrown as a missile in Xenophon and Menander, and collectively the soil.[7][6] In poetry it stands for land or a country: an oracle in Plutarch says that Libyan earth will cover Hannibal's body.[6][7] Euripides called the sun a golden clod, and Aristotle and Strabo used it of a lump or nugget of gold.[6][7] Papyri use it of earth fraudulently mixed with grain.[6] The proverb “a clod to the field” was said of bringing something where it was already plentiful.[6]

Medieval Greek kept the word.[9] It survives as Modern Greek βώλος (vólos), and the popular form Modern Greek σβώλος (svólos) arose when the article's final ⟨-ς⟩ in τους βώλους was taken as part of the noun.[10]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey uses it of the soil a plough breaks.[6][7]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of a clod of moist earth, and Euripides calls the sun a golden clod.[6][7][4]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of a clod thrown as a missile.[6][7][4]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of a nugget of gold.[6][4]
  • 2nd century AD – Papyri use it of earth mixed fraudulently into grain.[6]
  • Modern Greek – The word survives, with the popular form σβώλος (svólos).[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A lump of earth, a clod.[6][7]
  2. Collectively, earth, soil; in poetry, land, a country.[6][7]
  3. A lump of anything, as a nugget of gold.[6]

Word family

  • βῶλαξ (bôlax)
  • βωλοκοπέω (bōlokopéō)
  • ἐριβῶλαξ (eribôlax)
  • ἐρίβωλος (eríbōlos)
  • βωλοκόπος (bōlokópos)

Usage notes

It is usually feminine, less often masculine.[6] The proverb βῶλος ἄρουραν, “a clod to the field”, recorded by Zenobius, is like English “carrying coals to Newcastle”.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c 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
  4. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας