λῆνος

Forms

λῆνος (lênos) n (genitive λήνους or λήνεος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *wlḗnos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂ (“wool”), the old inherited word for wool.^[1][2] Only the neuter s-stem inflection is new: Frisk suggests it was taken from εἶρος (eîros) and πέκος (pékos), other words for fleece.^[2][3]

The same word is Latin lāna, Gothic 𐍅𐌿𐌻𐌻𐌰 (wulla), Sanskrit ऊर्णा (ū́rṇā) and English wool.^[2][1] An initial laryngeal is reconstructed because of Hittite ḫulana-, though Kloekhorst hesitates over it; in Greek it would have been lost early.^[2] The noun may come, with the suffix Proto-Indo-European *-neh₂, from a verb meaning “to pluck, tear” preserved in vellō (“to pull out”), to which vellus (“fleece”) also belongs.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aeschylus' Eumenides, of the wool wound round a suppliant's olive branch.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word is rare and poetic: LSJ glosses it as a woollen fillet in Aeschylus.^[5] Apollonius of Rhodes uses the plural for the golden fleece of the ram, and Callimachus also has it.^[4][5][6]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of the wool on a suppliant's branch.^[4][5][7]
• 3rd century BC – Callimachus has the plural.^[6][7]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses the plural for the golden fleece.^[4][5][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wool; a woollen fillet.^[5][4]
2. (plural) A fleece.^[5][4]

Related words

• Latin lāna
• Latin vellus
• English wool

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge