Etymologically
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δολιχός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /do.li.kʰós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ðo.liˈxos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ðo.liˈxos/[1]

Forms

δολῐχός (dolikhós) m (feminine δολῐχή, neuter δολῐχόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dl̥h₁gʰós (“long”), the Indo-European word for “long”.[1][2][3] Cognate with Sanskrit दीर्घ (dīrghá, “long”), Old Church Slavonic длъгъ (dlŭgŭ), Lithuanian ìlgas (with an unexplained loss of the d-), Hittite talugi- and perhaps Albanian gjatë (“long”).[2][3][4] Further related are Latin indulgeō (“to be kind, indulgent”) and, within Greek, ἐνδελεχής (endelekhḗs, “continuous”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is used of long spears (Iliad 4.533) and of time, a long night or a long illness (Odyssey 23.243, 11.172); the neuter is an adverb, “for a long time” (Iliad 10.52).[5][6][7] A long voyage or road (Odyssey 3.169, 4.393) joins both senses.[5]

Semantic evolution

It remained a poetic word: Hesiod, Aeschylus, Pindar and Bacchylides use it of spears and of long journeys, and the Alexandrian poets of oars, a beach, a headland or an inscription.[7][3] Chantraine notes that μακρός (makrós) competed with it and drove it out.[3] The noun δόλιχος (dólikhos), with the accent moved back, was the long race, probably of six stadia as opposed to the single στάδιον (stádion), and also the name of a bean plant in Theophrastus.[3]

Modern Greek uses δόλιχος, a learned borrowing, for the endurance race of the ancient games.[8]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of long spears, the Odyssey of a long night.[5][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of spears.[7][4]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus and Pindar use it of a long journey.[7][4]
  • 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of oars.[7][4]
  • Modern Greek – The noun δόλιχος names the ancient endurance race.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Long (of spears, oars, a beach, a headland).[7][5]
  2. Of a journey or voyage, long, covering a great distance.[7][5]
  3. Of time, long; the neuter as an adverb, “for a long time”.[7][6]

Word family

  • δολίχαυλος (dolíkhaulos)
  • δόλιχος (dólikhos)
  • δολιχόσκιος (dolikhóskios)
  • ἐνδελεχής (endelekhḗs)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki