καβάλλης

Forms

κᾰβᾰ́λλης (kabállēs) m (genitive κᾰβᾰ́λλου); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a popular word for a working horse, and a loanword, but its source is unknown.^[2][3] Beekes and Frisk take it, like Latin caballus, to be an Asian loanword or a Wanderwort, perhaps first an ethnic name, and compare a Turkic epithet of the horse and Persian کول (kaval, “horse of mixed blood”).^[3][4][1] Others compare Proto-Slavic *kobyla (“mare”), which Chantraine thinks an unlikely source.^[3][4][2] Wiktionary mentions a possible Iranian source.^[1] A link with the people called Καβαλεῖς in Asia Minor is uncertain.^[3][4][2]

Chantraine argues that the word cannot come from Latin or Celtic, because it is found early in the Greek East: a man named Καβαλλᾶς at Ephesus at the start of the 4th century BC and the derivative καβαλλεῖον (kaballeîon) at Callatis on the Black Sea in the 3rd.^[2][3] Babiniotis, on the other hand, derives the Greek word from the Latin one, and Köbler from Celtic.^[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Antipater of Thessalonica uses it in an epigram of the Greek Anthology, of Poseidon changed into a horse.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Plutarch uses it of a common horse, beside the donkey, and Hesychius glosses it as “a working horse”.^[2][8][9] In late Greek it had derivatives formed with Latin suffixes or taken from Latin: καβαλλάριος (kaballários) “groom”, matching caballārius, the adjective καβαλλαρικός (kaballarikós) “for horses” in Diocletian's price edict, and καβαλλάτιον (kaballátion), a plant name formed like the plant names in ἱππο-.^[3][4][8] Hesychius also uses καβάλλιον (kabállion) for the first couch in a dining room.^[3][2]

The Modern Greek words for riding come from Latin, not from καβάλλης: καβάλα (kavála) from Venetian or Late Latin caballa, and καβαλάρης (kavaláris) “rider” from Late Latin caballarius.^[10][11][5]

Timeline

• 1st century BC to 1st century AD – Antipater of Thessalonica uses it of Poseidon as a horse.^[2][12]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for a common horse.^[8][2][12]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as “a working horse”.^[9][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nag, a workhorse.^[8][3][9]

Word family

• καβάλλιον (kabállion)
• καβαλλαρικός (kaballarikós)
• καβαλλάτιον (kaballátion)

Related words

• Latin caballus
• Modern Greek καβαλάρης (kavaláris)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge