γλῶσσα

Forms

γλῶσσᾰ (glôssa) f (genitive γλώσσης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes and Frisk take it as originally “provided with a point”, formed from Ancient Greek γλῶχες (glôkhes, “beard of an ear of corn”) + -ια (-ia), with *glōgʰs (“point”), genitive *gl̥gʰós.^[2][3] Ionic γλάσσα (glássa) continues the zero grade of that paradigm.^[2][3] Babiniotis adds Old Church Slavonic глогъ (glogŭ, “thorn”), a connection that Wiktionary calls disputed.^[4][1]

Others relate it to the inherited Indo-European word for the tongue, seen in Old Latin dingua and Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (tuggō), with changes due to linguistic taboo.^[5] Havers thought that γλῶσσα replaced that old word through taboo, but Frisk notes it may just as well be an expressive popular word.^[3] A third view starts from *dl- (as in γλυκύς (glukús)) and links δολιχός (dolikhós, “long”).^[5] Attic has γλῶττα (glôtta).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on: in the Iliad speech sweeter than honey flows from a speaker's tongue.^[4][6][7] Homer already uses it also for the language of a people.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the tongue as the organ of speech and taste, the word meant speech and words (often set against thoughts or deeds, as in Euripides' line “my tongue swore, my mind did not”) and the language or dialect of a people.^[6][7] Aristotle uses it for an obsolete or foreign word that needs explanation.^[7][2] By resemblance it named tongue-shaped things, and Galen uses it for the larynx.^[6]

The Septuagint and the New Testament use it for language, and the Acts of the Apostles have speaking in “other tongues”.^[8] It survives as Modern Greek γλώσσα (glóssa), for the tongue and for language; a learned sense goes back to the ancient word too.^[9][10][4] Latin borrowed it as glōssa.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the tongue and for language.^[6][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of idle talk.^[6][5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides contrast what is said by word of mouth with what is written.^[7][5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of rare or dialect words.^[7][5]
• 1st century AD – The Acts of the Apostles speak of speaking in “other tongues”.^[8]
• Modern Greek – It survives as γλώσσα, for the tongue and for language.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tongue, of a person or animal, as the organ of speech or taste.^[6][7]
2. Language, dialect, the speech of a people.^[6][7][8]
3. Speech, words, utterance, often opposed to thought or deed.^[6][7]
4. (grammar) An obsolete, foreign or dialect word that needs explanation, a gloss.^[7][2]
5. (medicine) The larynx.^[6]

Word family

• ἄγλωσσος (áglōssos)
• ἀθυρόγλωσσος (athuróglōssos)
• ἀλλόγλωσσος (allóglōssos)
• ἀμφοτερόγλωσσος (amphoteróglōssos)
• γλωσσαλγία (glōssalgía)
• γλωσσάομαι (glōssáomai)
• γλώσσαργος (glṓssargos)
• γλωσσόκομον (glōssókomon)
• γλωττοστροφέω (glōttostrophéō)
• δίγλωσσος (díglōssos)
• ἐγγλωττοτυπέω (englōttotupéō)
• ἐπιγλωσσάομαι (epiglōssáomai)
• ἑπτάγλωσσος (heptáglōssos)
• ἑτερόγλωττος (heteróglōttos)

Related words

• γλωχίν (glōkhín)
• Latin glōssa

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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d e 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 i j 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 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. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann