γαλεός

Forms

γᾰλεός (galeós) m (genitive γᾰλεοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is probably from Ancient Greek γαλέη (galéē, “weasel”): Strömberg argued that the dogfish was named after the weasel, and Frisk found this likely.^[2][3][1] Chantraine thinks the fish was certainly named after the weasel, for its looks and because both are animals of prey, and calls the masculine a creation parallel to the feminine animal name.^[4] How the word was formed is unclear: Frisk and Beekes suggest a back-formation from γαλεώτης (galeṓtēs), on the model of ἀσκαλαβώτης (askalabṓtēs) beside ἀσκάλαβος (askálabos).^[2][3] Frisk and Chantraine explain the fish name γαλεώνυμος (galeṓnumos) as a blend of γαλεός with καλλιώνυμος (kalliṓnumos), which Beekes finds gratuitous.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Attic comedy, in a fragment of Aristophanes and in Plato Comicus, for a dogfish or small shark.^[5][6][2] The Hippocratic Internal Affections also mentions it.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle distinguishes several kinds: the γαλεὸς νεβρίας, perhaps the spotted dogfish, the γαλεὸς ἀστερίας and the smooth γαλεὸς λεῖος, the smooth-hound.^[6][5] The gourmet poet Archestratus speaks of the γαλεός of Rhodes, which may be the sturgeon.^[5][4] In the 2nd century AD the physician Aretaeus used it for the weasel itself, the same as γαλέη (galéē), a use Chantraine calls accidental.^[6][4]

The word passed through medieval Greek into Modern Greek as γαλέος (galéos), a Mediterranean fish related to the shark, with the accent moved, perhaps after collective plurals in -αίοι.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Plato Comicus name the dogfish in their comedies.^[5][6]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle distinguishes several species in the History of Animals.^[6][5]
• 4th century BC – Archestratus praises the γαλεός of Rhodes, perhaps the sturgeon.^[5]
• 2nd century AD – Aretaeus uses the word for the domestic weasel.^[6][5]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the fish name γαλέος (galéos).^[8][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dogfish or small shark; with epithets, several species of dogfish and smooth-hound.^[6][5][10]
2. Perhaps the sturgeon, in the γαλεός of Rhodes.^[5]
3. The same as γαλέη (galéē), a weasel.^[6][5]
4. A gecko, or perhaps a chameleon.^[5]

Word family

• γαλεώδης (galeṓdēs)

Related words

• γαλέη (galéē)
• γαλεώτης (galeṓtēs)

Usage notes

In the plural, as a proper name, it was the nickname of a family of Sicilian diviners, on which the comic poet Archippus made a pun with the fish.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
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. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press