μέταλλον

Forms

μέτᾰλλον (métallon) n (genitive μετᾰ́λλου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek: it is a technical term of mining, and so likely to be a loan, and it has the Pre-Greek suffix ⟨-αλλ-ο-⟩.^[2][3][1]

Ancient grammarians derived it from μεταλλάω (metalláō, “to search after”), as if from μετά (metá) and ἄλλος (állos, “other”), “to inquire after other things”.^[1][2] Frisk finds the semantic link very weak, and Beekes notes that the verb itself has no convincing etymology and may be an old technical term that epic poets used in a transferred sense.^[1][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses it for gold and silver mines and for a salt mine.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Classical Greek used it, mostly in the plural, for mines and quarries: Thucydides for the silver mines of Laurium, Strabo for marble quarries.^[4][5] Polybius used it for a tunnel dug in siege warfare.^[4][5] From the Roman period it came to mean the mineral or metal itself.^[4][2]

It was borrowed as Latin metallum (“mine, metal”), the source of German Metall and English metal.^[2][6] Medieval Greek kept the word, and Modern Greek μέταλλο (métallo) means “metal”.^[7][8][9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for mines.^[4][5][10]
• 4th century BC – Hyperides speaks of a mine that has been cut.^[4][5][10]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a siege mine.^[4][5][10]
• 1st century BC–AD – Strabo uses it for marble quarries.^[4][10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – A papyrus uses it for metal.^[4]
• 4th–5th century AD – Nonnus uses it for metal.^[4][2][10]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek μέταλλο (métallo) means “metal”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mine or quarry; in the plural, mines.^[4][5]
2. (military) A mine, a tunnel in siege operations.^[4][5]
3. (late) A mineral, metal.^[4][2]

Word family

• μεταλλεία (metalleía)
• μεταλλεύς (metalleús)
• μεταλλευτικός (metalleutikós)
• μεταλλεύω (metalleúō)
• μεταλλικός (metallikós)
• μεταλλάρχης (metallárkhēs)
• μεταλλουργός (metallourgós)

Related words

• μεταλλάω (metalláō)
• Latin metallum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge