καυλός

Forms

καυλός (kaulós) m (genitive καυλοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an old inherited word, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂ulo- (“shaft”), also found in Latin and Baltic.^[2][3] Cognate with Latin caulis (“stalk”), whose /i/-stem is secondary, Lithuanian káulas (“bone”), Latvian kaũls (“stalk, bone”), Old Prussian caulan (“bone”) and Old Irish cúal (“faggot, bundle of sticks”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary gives the root form as Proto-Indo-European *kh₂ulós or *kawlós (“tubular bone, pipe, stalk”) and compares κοῖλος (koîlos, “hollow”), with phonetic problems left unresolved.^[1] Beekes rejects a link with Sanskrit कुल्या (kulyā́, “ditch, canal”) and with the Germanic word for “hollow”.^[2]

Ancient writers derived it from αὐλός (aulós, “pipe”) with a prothetic /k/, because a stalk is long like a pipe,^[5] but Chantraine notes that nothing can be drawn from the rhyme.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer, only in the Iliad, it is the shaft of a spear, the part where the spear-head sits, and once the hilt of a sword.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

From Epicharmus and Aristophanes on its usual sense is the stem or stalk of a plant, as opposed to the trunk of a tree in Theophrastus; comedy names the stalk of silphium from Cyrene.^[6][7] Aristophanes uses the plural figuratively for the juiciest parts of magistrates' audits.^[7] Plato and Aristotle use it for the quill of a feather, and Aristotle for tubular parts of animals, such as the neck of the bladder, the duct of the penis and the ovipositor of locusts.^[6][7]

Medieval Greek kept it, partly as a learned word.^[8] In Modern Greek καυλός (kavlós) is the stem of a plant,^[9] and Babiniotis notes that the sense “penis” is already ancient, and lists the slang derivatives Modern Greek καυλί (kavlí) and καυλώνω (kavlóno).^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the shaft of a spear and the hilt of a sword.^[6][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for plant stalks, including the silphium stalk.^[6][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the quill of a feather.^[6][11]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for tubular organs of animals.^[6][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus distinguishes the stalk of a plant from the trunk of a tree.^[6][11]
• Modern Greek – It survives as Modern Greek καυλός (kavlós).^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The stem or stalk of a plant.^[6][7]
2. (Homer) The shaft of a spear, where the head is fixed; the hilt of a sword.^[6][7]
3. The quill of a feather.^[6][7]
4. (anatomy) A tubular part of an animal: the neck of the bladder, the duct of the penis, the cervix, the ovipositor of locusts.^[6]
5. The shank of a fish-hook.^[6]

Word family

• καύλινος (kaúlinos)
• στρογγυλόκαυλος (strongulókaulos)

Related words

• Latin caulis

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 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge