μίλτος

Forms

μίλτος (míltos) f (genitive μίλτου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, a technical foreign word;^[2][3] Scarborough's database rates this judgement as very reliable.^[4] Frisk and Chantraine likewise call it a borrowed technical term of unknown origin.^[5][6] The old connection with μέλας (mélas, “black”) is impossible in sound and in form and does not fit the meaning, since it would need an unexplained change of ε to ι.^[2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean already has a derivative, Mycenaean Greek mi-to-we-sa, an adjective meaning “painted red”, in tablets from Knossos.^[7][8] The noun itself is first found in Herodotus, of peoples who paint their bodies with it.^[9][10][8]

Semantic evolution

In Attic it is the red ochre used as a body paint, a cosmetic and a dye, in Aristophanes and Xenophon;^[11][9] Athenian inscriptions record it among building materials.^[9] Later it also meant red lead, and by a further extension the grammarian Pausanias uses it for rust, a disease of plants.^[9][2] In the magical papyri it is a code word for blood, as in “ruddle of a dove”.^[9]

Personal names such as Miltiades and Milto are formed from it.^[8]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – Tablets from Knossos have the derivative Mycenaean Greek mi-to-we-sa “painted red”.^[7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a red body paint.^[9][10][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Xenophon use it for red ochre.^[11][12]
• 4th century BC – An Athenian inscription of 329/8 BC records it.^[9][4]
• 2nd century BC – Pausanias the grammarian uses it for rust in plants.^[9][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Ruddle, red ochre, red earth used as a pigment, body paint and dye.^[9][11]
2. Red lead.^[9]
3. Rust in plants.^[9][2]
4. (magic) A code word for blood.^[9][2]

Word family

• μιλτόω (miltóō)
• μιλτεῖον (milteîon)
• μίλτινος (míltinos)
• μιλτοπάρῃος (miltopárēios)
• σύμμιλτος (súmmiltos)

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
8. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
11. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge