μόλις

Forms

μόλις (mólis) ^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] The older proposals all have problems: a link with μῶλος (môlos, “toil, struggle”) does not fit the short root vowel, unless the vowel was shortened after its synonym (see below), and a link with μέλλω (méllō, “to hesitate”), as if “hesitantly”, is semantically weak.^[2][3][4] Chantraine also rejects a link with μάλα (mála, “very”).^[3] In formation the word belongs with its synonym μόγις (mógis), from μόγος (mógos, “toil”).^[3][5]

The Etymologicum Magnum mentions a derivation from the verb for “to hesitate”, which its compiler rejects, preferring to see the word as a form of its synonym.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aeschylus, in the phrase οὐ μόλις, “not barely”, that is “utterly” or “readily”.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Μόλις replaced Homer's μόγις (mógis) after Homer and prevailed in tragedy, comedy and Attic prose, though Plato and later prose preferred μόγις.^[7] It meant “with difficulty, barely”, and also “at last, only after some time”; from Demosthenes and Menander on it could also mean “reluctantly”.^[8] The papyri, the Septuagint and the New Testament use it in the same senses, as in Acts for a ship that “with difficulty” reached harbour.^[5]

It survived in medieval vernacular Greek and in Modern Greek μόλις (mólis), which means “barely” and “just now”, and is also a temporal conjunction “as soon as”.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus has the phrase οὐ μόλις, “utterly”.^[7][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Thucydides use it for “barely” and “at last”.^[8][7]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for “reluctantly”.^[8]
• 2nd century BC – A papyrus from Tebtunis uses it.^[5]
• 1st century AD – The Acts of the Apostles uses it of a difficult voyage.^[5]
• Modern Greek – μόλις (mólis) means “barely”, “just now” and “as soon as”.^[11]

Meanings

Adverb

1. With difficulty, only just, barely, scarcely.^[7][8]
2. With a negation, οὐ μόλις, without difficulty, readily; utterly.^[7][8]
3. Only after a time, at last.^[8]
4. Unwillingly, reluctantly.^[8]
5. Rarely, hardly ever.^[5]

Related words

• μόγις (mógis)

Usage notes

Zonaras glosses it as “slowly”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 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. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius