μαλάχη

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /ma.lá.kʰɛː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /maˈla.çi/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /maˈla.çi/^[1]

Forms

μαλάχη (malákhē) f (genitive μαλάχης); first declension^[1] Also μολόχη (molókhē) (Epicharmus, Antiphanes) and μολάχη (an inscription on a vase from Naples), and the accusative μάλβακα (málbaka) in an oracle quoted by Lucian.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, a Mediterranean word like Latin malva (“mallow”).^[5][2] The rare accusative μάλβακα (málbaka) is strikingly like the Latin word and points to a form Pre-Greek *malwak-, which explains all the Greek variants: the vowels a and o, ⟨κ⟩ and ⟨χ⟩, and the suffix -ακ-.^[5][2][6] Chantraine too thinks of a Mediterranean term parallel to the Latin, and leaves the variation of its vowels unexplained.^[3][7]

It has traditionally been compared with Biblical Hebrew מַלּוּחַ (mallūaḥ, “saltbush”), a salty plant eaten by the poor, and Beekes leaves open whether Pre-Greek took the word from Semitic or the other way round;^[5][1] Rosół lists the Semitic etymology among those he rejects.^[8] Wiktionary adds Georgian ბალბა (balba) to the comparison.^[1]

The ancients derived it from μαλάσσω (malássō, “to soften”), because of the plant's laxative properties, but Chantraine calls this a folk etymology.^[3][4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hesiod, in the Works and Days, names the mallow with the asphodel as the food of the poor.^[4][10][11]

Semantic evolution

In Aristophanes too it is a poor man's food, eaten instead of bread.^[4][10] Theophrastus and Dioscorides name several kinds: the wild mallow, which is the marsh mallow, and the garden tree mallow.^[4] Its derivatives named a necklace, a fish, a precious stone and mallow-coloured cloth.^[3]

Latin has malache from it, and malva perhaps.^[12] It passed into Coptic by about AD 400.^[13][13] Medieval Greek made the form Modern Greek μολόχα (molócha) from μολόχη (molókhē), the Modern Greek name of the plant.^[14][9]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod names it as food of the poor.^[4][10][15]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes speaks of eating mallow shoots instead of bread.^[4][10][15]
• 4th century BC – Antiphanes has the form μολόχη (molókhē).^[4][3][15]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes the wild mallow and other kinds.^[4][15]
• About AD 400 – A Coptic text has the borrowed word, spelled ⲙⲟⲗⲟⲭ.^[13]
• Modern Greek – The plant is called Modern Greek μολόχα (molócha).^[14][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The mallow, Malva silvestris.^[4][10]
2. (with ἀγρία) The marsh mallow.^[4]
3. (with κηπευτή) The tree mallow.^[4]

Word family

• μαλάχιον (malákhion)
• μολόχινος (molókhinos)

Related words

• μολόχη (molókhē)
• Latin malva
• Latin malache

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e 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 g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
7. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
9. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
13. ^ a b c Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge