Etymologically
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δόλος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /dó.los/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈðo.los/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈðo.los/[1]

Forms

δόλος (dólos) m (genitive δόλου); second declension[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it possibly Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because of its concrete basic meaning, “bait”.[2][1] He thinks Latin dolus (“deceit, fraud”) and Oscan dolom (“intention, ruse”) identical with it, but perhaps borrowed from Greek; the DGE agrees that they may be loans.[2][3]

The traditional etymology derives it from Proto-Indo-European *delH- (“to reckon”) and compares the Latin and Oscan words with Germanic forms such as Old Norse tál (“deception, trick”) and Old English tǣl (“blame, slander”).[1] Beekes thinks the Germanic words, which would need a lengthened grade, are rather not related, and a link with δαιδάλλω (daidállō, “to work cunningly”) quite hypothetical.[2] The DGE also mentions δέλεαρ (délear, “bait”), with an irregular treatment of the labiovelar.[3] Babiniotis allows a PIE origin if the Latin word is not a loan.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has its concrete senses: bait for fish (Odyssey 12.252), the net Hephaestus forged to catch Ares and Aphrodite, and the Trojan horse (Odyssey 8.276, 494).[5][6] It also means any trick or stratagem, and in the abstract guile: Penelope “winds up wiles”, and a man killed “by guile, not by strength” (Odyssey 19.137, Iliad 7.142).[5][6][3]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod calls Pandora, made by Hephaestus, a δόλος, a trap.[7][3] The mock-epic Battle of Frogs and Mice has a wooden mousetrap, and later poets use it for traps for weasels, leopards and lions.[3][6] In tragedy it is mainly cunning and treachery set against force: Aeschylus, and Sophocles with phrases such as “by guile”.[6]

In the New Testament δόλος stands in lists of vices as “deceit”, and the phrase “in whom there is no guile” (John 1:47) echoes the Septuagint.[8] Medieval vernacular Greek had it for cunning and also, as a neuter, for bait used by fishermen.[9] Modern Greek Δόλος (dólos) means deceit and, in law, criminal intent.[10]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey uses it for fish bait, Hephaestus' net and the Trojan horse, and both epics for tricks and guile.[5][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod calls Pandora a δόλος.[7][3]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for deceit opposed to force.[6][3]
  • New Testament – It is “deceit” in lists of vices.[8]
  • Medieval vernacular Greek – It also means bait for fish.[9]
  • Modern Greek – δόλος means deceit and, as a legal term, criminal intent.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Bait for fish.[7][5]
  2. A trap or contrivance for catching (Hephaestus' net, the Trojan horse, a mousetrap).[7][6][3]
  3. A trick, plot or scheme; in the plural, wiles.[7][1]
  4. (abstract) Deceit, cunning, treachery.[7][6][8]

Word family

  • ἄδολος (ádolos)
  • δολερός (dolerós)
  • δόλιος (dólios)
  • δολόεις (dolóeis)
  • δολοφόνος (dolophónos)
  • δολόω (dolóō)
  • δόλωμα (dólōma)
  • δόλωσις (dólōsis)
  • δόλευμα (dóleuma)
  • δολία (dolía)
  • δολιεύομαι (dolieúomai)
  • δολίζω (dolízō)
  • δολιότης (doliótēs)
  • δολιόω (dolióō)

Usage notes

Hesychius records a second δόλος glossed πάσσαλος “peg”; the DGE gives it as a separate entry meaning “nail”, and Beekes finds the gloss unclear.[11][3][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e f g h i Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  4. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  5. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  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. ^ a b c d e f 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 Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  11. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)