λέμβος

Forms

λέμβος (lémbos) m (genitive λέμβου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes calls it a foreign word without an etymology, perhaps Illyrian.^[2] Chantraine likewise finds no etymology and thinks it may be a borrowing.^[3] Pokorny takes the supposed Illyrian word for a light vessel, which Greek and Latin then borrowed, from the root Proto-Indo-European *legʷʰ- (“light”).^[4][5]

Rosół lists it as perhaps a Semitic loanword, comparing Akkadian eleppu (“ship, boat”), and he notes that Pliny the Elder credits the people of Cyrene with inventing the lembus.^[6] Wiktionary derives it directly from the Akkadian word.^[1] Latin lembus is borrowed from Greek.^[2][7]

Ancient writers explained it otherwise: the Etymologicum Magnum derives it from going (βαίνω (baínō)) exceedingly (λίαν (lían)) fast because of its small size.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first texts are 4th-century BC speeches of Demosthenes and Lycurgus, where it is the small boat carried or towed by a larger ship, a cock-boat.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Semantic evolution

In Middle Comedy Anaxandrides applied it figuratively to a parasite, who follows his patron as a tow-boat follows a ship.^[9][13] Theocritus uses it of a fisherman's boat.^[9][10] In Polybius it is a light, fast galley that sailed ahead of a fleet or served as a transport, and it appears in a 3rd-century BC inscription from Halasarna and in papyri of the same century.^[9][10][13] Aristotle has the adjective λεμβῶδες “boat-like”.^[2][3] The lexicographers gloss it as a small boat or tow-boat, and Ammonius distinguishes it from λέμφος (lémphos), an Attic word for a snivelling person.^[14][15]

The Romans borrowed it as Latin lembus.^[7][2] Modern Greek keeps the word as a learned Modern Greek λέμβος (lémvos) “boat”, which became feminine after βάρκα (várka).^[16][17]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Demosthenes and Lycurgus use it of a small boat belonging to a larger ship.^[9][10][12]
• 4th century BC – Anaxandrides calls a parasite a lembos.^[9][12]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of a fishing boat.^[9][10][12]
• 3rd century BC – An inscription from Halasarna and papyri record it as a light transport vessel.^[9]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius describes light galleys sent ahead of a fleet.^[9][10][12]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the learned feminine λέμβος (lémvos) “boat”.^[16][17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small boat belonging to a larger ship, a ship's boat or cock-boat.^[9][10][13]
2. (figurative) A parasite who follows his patron about.^[9][13]
3. A fishing boat, or any small boat of a private person.^[9][10]
4. A light, fast galley, used to go ahead of a fleet or as a transport.^[9][10][13]

Related words

• Latin lembus

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. ^ a b 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. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
7. ^ a b Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
12. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ a b c d e Montanari, Franco (2015), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, ed. Madeleine Goh and Chad Schroeder, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
15. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
16. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
17. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας