μυχλός

Forms

μυχλός (mukhlós) m (genitive μυχλοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes and Frisk treat it as a form of μύκλος (múklos, “lustful”), and Beekes considers the word Pre-Greek, because the variation between ⟨κ⟩ in that word, ⟨χ⟩ in μυχλός and ⟨σκ⟩ in μύσκλοι (múskloi) is typical of Pre-Greek words.^[2][3]

The older view reduces μυχλός to *μυκσλός (*mukslós) and equates it with Latin mūlus (“mule”), from *mukslos; Albanian mushk (“mule”) and Old Church Slavonic мъскъ (mŭskŭ, “mule”) show a different formation.^[4][5][1] Since mule-breeding came from Pontic Asia Minor, Frisk and Chantraine think rather of a wandering word whose forms varied, which weakens the identity with Latin.^[4][5] Beekes rejects the wandering word and keeps Pre-Greek.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is known only from Hesychius, who glosses it “crooked”, “a stud”, “lustful, adulterous, incontinent”, and says that the Phocians gave the name to asses sent to cover mares.^[6][2][7]

Semantic evolution

The related μύκλος (múklos) meant “lascivious” in Archilochus and Lycophron and was an epithet of the pack-ass, so the Phocian name of the stud ass and the senses “lecher, adulterer” go together.^[2][5][4] Chantraine notes that Hesychius' other meanings of μύκλοι, black stripes on an ass's back and legs, belong to different, unexplained words.^[5]

Timeline

• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius records it as a Phocian word for a stud ass and glosses it “lustful, adulterous”.^[6][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Phocian) A stud ass, a donkey kept for breeding.^[6][2][1]
2. A lecher, an adulterer; as an adjective, lustful, incontinent, crooked.^[6][2]

Related words

• μύκλος (múklos)
• μύσκλοι (múskloi)
• Latin mūlus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d 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
6. ^ a b c d Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
7. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
8. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge