διαβάλλω

Forms

διαβάλλω (diabállō) ^[1] Future διαβαλῶ, perfect διαβέβληκα; aorist passive διεβλήθην.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek διά (diá, “across, through”) + βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).^[1][4] Other compounds of the verb formed in the same way are ἐπιβάλλω (epibállō), μεταβάλλω (metabállō) and συμβάλλω (sumbállō).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first sense is physical, “to throw or carry across” and, intransitively, “to cross”: Herodotus uses it of taking ships across to an island and of crossing a strait, and Euripides and Thucydides of crossing to a place.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

From the 5th century BC it also meant to set people at odds, to bring someone into discredit and to slander him, the sense that became the commonest: Herodotus speaks of slandering the Athenians to Artaphrenes, and Thucydides, Aristophanes and the orators use it of hostile or false accusations.^[2][5] Babiniotis traces this meaning back to “carry accusations across” to a third person.^[4] In Herodotus it also means to deceive with false accounts, and in Demosthenes to misrepresent a thing.^[2][5]

The accusation need not be false: in the New Testament it is to bring charges against someone, justly or falsely, and the papyri use it of giving hostile information.^[3][2] Later prose uses it of putting someone off with evasions (in papyri of the 2nd century AD), of refuting a doctrine (Galen), and of declaring a verse spurious (Plutarch).^[2]

From it come διαβολή (diabolḗ), “slander”, and διάβολος (diábolos), “slanderer”.^[3] In medieval Greek διαβάλλω (diavállo) (also διαβάλνω) meant to slander, and Modern Greek διαβάλλω (diavállo) means to accuse someone falsely and slyly to others.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of carrying ships across, of crossing over and of slandering, and Thucydides of crossing the Ionian Sea.^[2][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of setting two people at odds.^[2][5]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it of misrepresenting a thing.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of bringing charges against a person.^[3]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it of refuting a scientific doctrine.^[2]
• 6th century AD – Procopius uses it of laying the blame for something on someone.^[2]
• Modern Greek – διαβάλλω (diavállo) means to slander someone.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw or carry over or across.^[2][5]
2. (intransitive) To pass over, cross (a sea, a bridge, to a place).^[2][5]
3. To put something through something else.^[2]
4. To set at variance, set two people against each other.^[2][5]
5. To bring into discredit; to slander, calumniate; to misrepresent a thing.^[2][5]
6. To bring charges, give hostile information, whether true or false.^[3][2]
7. To deceive by false accounts, mislead.^[2][5]
8. To put someone off with evasions.^[2]
9. To disprove a doctrine; to declare a verse spurious.^[2]
10. (Byzantine) To lay the blame for something on someone.^[2]

Word family

• διαβολή (diabolḗ)
• διάβολος (diábolos)

Related words

• βάλλω (bállō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 r s t u Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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
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 f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki