κολοσσός

Forms

κολοσσός (kolossós) m (genitive κολοσσοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes takes it from Pre-Greek: the element -σσ- typically points to Pre-Greek, where it may stand for an earlier palatal as in θάλασσα (thálassa, “sea”), and the word has variants with -ττ- and -σ-.^[2][3] Chantraine thinks the ending proves a Mediterranean loanword, and recalls Benveniste's comparison with place names such as Κολοσσαί (Kolossaí) and Κολοφών (Kolophṓn).^[4] Boisacq, cited by Frisk and Beekes, compared the equally obscure κολεκάνος (kolekános, “tall, thin man”); the Indo-European etymologies proposed are rejected.^[5][2] Wiktionary considers it perhaps Minoan.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first text is Aeschylus' Agamemnon, where it means statues in general.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Its original sense was a statue of human form in general, and at Cyrene it named small figures of a man and a woman, of wood or clay, standing for absent persons.^[8][2][6] Herodotus used it only of the gigantic statues of Egypt.^[6] From the Hellenistic period it meant a statue larger than life: Polybius uses it for the Colossus of Rhodes.^[6][9] The sense “huge, gigantic” comes from that statue.^[8]

It was borrowed as Latin colossus, which gave English colossus and French colosse and the adjective colossal.^[10][11] Modern Greek κολοσσός (kolossós) is a learned word for a giant statue and, in a sense calqued on French, for anything of enormous size, or a person outstanding in some quality.^[12]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for statues.^[6][7][13]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the gigantic statues of Egypt.^[6][9][13]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the Colossus of Rhodes.^[9][13]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus uses the form κολοττός.^[6][13]
• Late 14th century – English borrows colossus from Latin.^[11]
• Modern Greek – κολοσσός is a giant statue and anything of enormous size.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gigantic statue, a colossus, especially of the Egyptian statues and the Colossus of Rhodes.^[6][9]
2. A statue in general.^[6][9]
3. (Cyrene) A small figure standing for an absent person.^[6][2]

Related words

• κολοσσιαῖος (kolossiaîos)
• Latin colossus
• English colossus
• English colossal

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge