ναυτίλος

Forms

ναυτῐ́λος (nautílos) m (genitive ναυτῐ́λου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ναύτης (naútēs, “sailor”),^[1][2][3] formed with the suffix -ίλος (-ílos), which Beekes compares with that of ὀργίλος (orgílos) and ποικίλος (poikílos).^[4] Beekes lists it among the derivatives of that noun, beside ναυτικός (nautikós) and ναυτία (nautía, “seasickness”).^[4] The noun comes from ναῦς (nāûs, “ship”), the old Indo-European word Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us (“ship”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aeschylus, as a poetic word for a sailor or seafarer.^[5][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus, the tragedians and the Hellenistic poets used it for a seaman.^[2][3] LSJ calls it the poetic form of ναύτης, and it is rare in comedy.^[2][3] Aeschylus and Euripides also used it as an adjective, of a ship's rowing-benches and oars.^[2][3]

Aristotle gave the name to the paper nautilus, a cephalopod that was thought to sail by spreading its webbed arms, and Callimachus, Oppian and Aelian used it so.^[2][3][6] Latin took it as nautilus, which Pliny uses of a kind of sea creature, and English borrowed it from Latin about 1600.^[6]

Modern Greek has ναυτίλος (naftílos) as a learned word for a seafarer, and, through New Latin nautilus, for the shelled mollusc of the Pacific.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for sailors, and as an adjective of a ship's rowing-benches.^[5][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Sophocles use it for a seaman.^[2][3]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle names the paper nautilus with it.^[2]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it of the nautilus in an epigram.^[2][3]
• 2nd century AD – Oppian describes the nautilus.^[2]
• About 1600 – English borrows nautilus from Latin.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A seaman, sailor; a poetic word for ναύτης (naútēs).^[2][3]
2. The paper nautilus (Argonauta argo), a cephalopod believed to sail by spreading its arms.^[2][3]

Adjective

1. Of a ship or of sailors: said of rowing-benches and oars.^[2][3]

Word family

• ναυτιλία (nautilía)
• ναυτίλλομαι (nautíllomai)
• ναυτιλοφθόρος (nautilophthóros)

Related words

• ναύτης (naútēs)
• ναῦς (nāûs)
• English nautilus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας