θόλος

Forms

θόλος (thólos) f (genitive θόλου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek: a technical word without explanation, which he connects with θάλαμος (thálamos, “inner room”), the variation of ⟨α⟩ and ⟨ο⟩ being typical of Pre-Greek.^[2][3] He rejects the comparison with the European word for “valley”, Proto-Germanic *dalą and Proto-Slavic *dȏlъ.^[2][1] Chantraine finds no proposal satisfactory, neither the link with the inner room nor the Germanic, Slavic and Celtic words for a hollow or valley.^[4] Kroonen, however, keeps the Indo-European etymology and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *dʰól(h₂)os.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it is a round building in the courtyard of Odysseus' house, near which the unfaithful maids are hanged.^[5][6][7] The CGL suggests it may have been an oven or a grain store, and an ancient commentator calls it a storehouse.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

At Athens the Tholos was the round building where the prytaneis dined and met, mentioned by Andocides, Plato, Demosthenes and Aristotle.^[5][6] A lexicon of the orators explains that it was named from its shape, a round building with a stone vault rather than a wooden roof, and that the word is feminine.^[8] Pausanias describes a similar building at Epidaurus.^[5] The round building was always rare in Greek architecture and used as a deliberate, striking form.^[9]

In Hellenistic Greek the word also became masculine, for the vaulted steam room of a public bath.^[5][10] It was borrowed as Latin tholus.^[11][9] Medieval Greek kept it.^[12] Modern Greek θόλος (thólos) now means a vault or dome, and as a feminine, in archaeology, an ancient round building with a domed or conical roof.^[10][10][13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for a round building in a courtyard.^[5][14]
• 5th–4th century BC – Andocides and Plato name the Rotunda of the prytaneis at Athens.^[5][14][15]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the dining of the prytaneis in the Tholos.^[5][15]
• 3rd century BC – A papyrus uses it, as a masculine, for the steam room of a bath.^[5]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias describes the round building at Epidaurus.^[5][15]
• Modern Greek – It means a vault or dome.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A round building with a conical roof, a rotunda.^[5][6]
2. The Tholos at Athens, where the prytaneis dined.^[5][6]
3. (Hellenistic, masculine) The vaulted steam room of a public bath.^[5]
4. (medicine) A head bandage invented by Diocles.^[5]

Word family

• θολία (tholíā)
• θολικός (tholikós)
• θολωτός (tholōtós)

Related words

• Latin tholus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
8. ^ Lexica Segueriana, in Immanuel Bekker, ed. (1814), Anecdota Graeca I, Berlin: Nauck
9. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
14. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
15. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge