Etymologically
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μαλακός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ma.la.kós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ma.laˈkos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ma.laˈkos/[1]

Forms

μᾰλᾰκός (malakós) m (feminine μᾰλᾰκή, neuter μᾰλᾰκόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *məlakos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥h₂ekos, from *melh₂- (“soft, weak”).[1] Beekes takes it as a primary derivative in -k- whose nearest relative is βλάξ (blā́x, “slack, stupid”): the two forms point to a split paradigm, *mlh₂-k- giving βλάξ (blā́x) and *mlh₂-ek- giving μαλακός.[2][3] The old comparison with the verb for “to grind” in μύλη (múlē) he considers outdated.[2] Frisk still took the grinding verb as the base, and Wiktionary notes that the separation is disputed.[2][4][1]

Chantraine adds ἀμαλός (amalós, “weak, tender”) and ἀμαλδύνω (amaldúnō), forms without the -k-, and more distantly Latin mollis (“soft”) and Sanskrit मृदु (mṛdú, “soft”).[3][5] Wiktionary also compares Old Irish malcad (“rottenness”) and Proto-Germanic *malskaz (“soft; haughty”).[1] See also μαλθακός (malthakós).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

From Homer on it is used of things soft to the touch: beds and fleeces, garments, soft meadows and fresh-ploughed fallow land.[6][7][8] Homer already uses it of things not touched: gentle sleep and death, and soft, winning words.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

In poetry the word is mostly favourable: a soft glance, a gentle person.[3] Of people it could also mean soft in a bad sense, weak, cowardly or effeminate, and Plato and Aristotle use it of slackness of character.[3][6][2] Aristotle's zoology names the soft-bodied animals, the cephalopods, τὰ μαλάκια (malákia), and the crustaceans μαλακόστρακα (malakóstraka), “soft-shelled”.[2][3] Many technical compounds begin with μαλακο-.[3]

In the New Testament it is used of the fine clothes of those who live in palaces, and, in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, of a man who takes the passive part in a same-sex relationship.[9] Latin borrowed it as malacus (“soft, effeminate”).[10] The word has been in use through the whole history of Greek, and Modern Greek μαλακός (malakós) is the ordinary Modern Greek word for “soft”, opposed to “hard”.[3][11][12]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of bedding and garments, and of soft words and sleep.[6][8]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the neuter as a noun for softness as an abstract quality.[7][13]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle names the cephalopods and crustaceans after their soft bodies or shells.[2][3][13]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of soft clothes and of an effeminate man.[9]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek μαλακός (malakós) still means “soft”.[12][11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Soft to the touch, yielding to pressure: of bedding, garments, wool, grass, soil.[6][7]
  2. Of the body, soft, tender; of sheep, soft-fleeced.[6][7]
  3. Gentle, mild: of sleep, death, words, breezes.[6]
  4. (of character) Soft, weak, effeminate, cowardly.[6][2][3]
  5. (New Testament) Passive in a same-sex relationship.[9]
  6. (neuter as a noun) Softness.[7]

Word family

  • μάλαγμα (málagma)
  • μαλακία (malakíā)
  • μαλακότης (malakótēs)
  • μαλακῶς (malakôs)
  • μαλάσσω (malássō)
  • μαλακόστρακος (malakóstrakos)
  • μαλάκιον (malákion)
  • μαλακύνω (malakúnō)
  • βλάξ (blā́x)
  • μαλθακός (malthakós)
  • ἀμαλός (amalós)
  • Latin malacus
  • Latin mollis

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 h 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 c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  9. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  11. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  13. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge