Etymologically
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θῆλυς

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /tʰɛ̂ː.lys/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈθi.lys/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈθi.lys/[1]

Forms

θῆλῠς (thêlus) m (feminine θήλειᾰ, neuter θῆλῠ); first/third declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-lu-s, from *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck”), the root of θῆσθαι (thêsthai, “to suck”) and θηλή (thēlḗ, “teat”).[2][1] A formal counterpart, except for the accent, is Sanskrit धारु (dhārú-, “sucking”), but Beekes thinks the Sanskrit word may come straight from the verb, while for Greek an intermediate nominal ⟨l⟩-stem must be assumed.[2][3] Other words from the root are Latin fēmina, Latin fīlius and Sanskrit धयति (dháyati, “sucks”).[1]

Plato's dialogue Cratylus derives the word from the word for teat.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, meaning female, of goddesses, women and animals: the Iliad speaks of a female goddess and a ewe.[5][6][7] Homer has both the regular feminine θήλεια (thḗleia) and θῆλυς used as a feminine.[6][5]

Semantic evolution

In Homer the comparative θηλύτερος (thēlúteros) marks the female in opposition to the male, as in “female goddesses”.[5][6] The Odyssey also applies the word to things: the cry of girls, and soft dew.[6] Later senses are fruitful, of water and land, and, of character, soft and weak, as in Sophocles' line θῆλυς ηὕρημαι τάλας, “wretch that I am, I am found womanish”.[6][8]

As a noun the feminine meant a woman or female in Herodotus and Xenophon, and the neuter the female sex, opposed to the male, in Euripides, Plato and Aristotle.[6][8] Technical uses followed: female plants in Theophrastus, the feminine gender in Aristophanes and Aristotle, even numbers among the Pythagoreans, and female parts in mechanics.[6] In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is “female” in “male and female”.[9]

Medieval Greek kept the adjective.[10] Modern Greek θήλυς (thílis) is a learned word for “female”, used for flowers and in the names of girls' schools.[11][12]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for female animals and goddesses.[5][7]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the feminine as a noun for a female.[6][13]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses the neuter for womankind.[6][13]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for the feminine gender of nouns.[6][13]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of female plants.[6][13]
  • Modern Greek – It is a learned word for “female”.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Female, of gods, people, animals and plants.[6][8]
  2. (as a noun) A woman, a female, and in the neuter the female sex, womankind.[6][8]
  3. Of or belonging to women.[6][8]
  4. Soft, gentle; fruitful, of dew, water and land.[6]
  5. Delicate, tender; of character, soft, weak, effeminate.[6][8]
  6. (grammar) Feminine.[6]
  7. (Pythagorean) Of even numbers.[6]

Word family

  • ἄθηλυς (áthēlus)
  • θηλυγενής (thēlugenḗs)
  • θηλυδριώδης (thēludriṓdēs)
  • θηλυκρατής (thēlukratḗs)
  • θηλύμορφος (thēlúmorphos)
  • θηλύτης (thēlútēs)
  • θηλύφρων (thēlúphrōn)
  • θηλυκός (thēlukós)
  • θηλύνω (thēlúnō)
  • θηλή (thēlḗ)
  • θῆσθαι (thêsthai)
  • Latin fēmina

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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
  4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  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 i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge