Etymologically
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δελφίς

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /del.pʰǐːs/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ðelˈɸis/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ðelˈfis/[1]

Forms

δελφῑ́ς (delphī́s) m (genitive δελφῖνος); third declension[1] Later also nominative δελφίν.[2] Aeolic (Lesbian) βελφίν.[3][2]

Etymology

It is formed from the root of δελφύς (delphús, “womb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelbʰ- (“womb”), with a rare suffix found also in ἀκτίς (aktís), γλωχίς (glōkhís) and ὠδίς (ōdís).[4][1][3][5] The dolphin was thus named after its body, as the “animal with a womb”, a mammal among the fishes.[4][1][5] Chantraine suggests it may also have been a nickname, the “piglet” of the sea, since δέλφαξ (délphax, “young pig”) is of the same root.[6][7]

Aeolic βελφίν (belphín) shows that the initial sound was a labiovelar, which became ⟨δ⟩ before ⟨ε⟩ elsewhere.[6][3][2] It is related to ἀδελφός (adelphós, “brother”), “from the same womb”.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

From Homer on it means the dolphin, in both the Iliad and the Odyssey.[2][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The dolphin was used as an ornament, and Attic comedy used the name for a heavy dolphin-shaped weight of lead hung from a ship's yard-arm and dropped on enemy ships.[2][8][6] Astronomers from Democritus on named a constellation after it, and later technical writers used it for stops in a machine.[2] The dolphin was associated with Apollo as Delphinios, whose temple at Athens was the Delphinion.[3]

Hellenistic Greek used a new nominative δελφίν, and its diminutive gave Modern Greek δελφίνι (delfíni).[10][7] Latin borrowed the word as Latin delphinus, the source of English dolphin through Old French.[11][12]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the dolphin.[2][9]
  • 5th century BC – Democritus uses it for the constellation Dolphin.[2][5]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for the dolphin-shaped lead weights of warships.[2][8][5]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the dolphin in his zoological works.[2][5]
  • 4th century AD – Oribasius uses it for stops in a machine.[2][5]
  • Middle Ages – The diminutive *δελφίνιον becomes Modern Greek δελφίνι.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A dolphin.[2][8]
  2. A heavy dolphin-shaped mass of lead hung from a ship's yard-arm and dropped on enemy ships.[2][8]
  3. A fish, the same as the κερκέτης (kerkétēs).[2]
  4. A stop in a machine.[2]
  5. The constellation Dolphin.[2]

Word family

  • δελφίνιον (delphínion)
  • δελφινίς (delphinís)
  • δελφινίσκος (delphinískos)
  • δελφινάριον (delphinárion)
  • δελφινίζω (delphinízō)
  • δελφύς (delphús)
  • ἀδελφός (adelphós)
  • δέλφαξ (délphax)
  • Latin delphinus
  • English dolphin

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ a b c 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  6. ^ a b c d 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
  7. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  8. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com