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ξύλον

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ksý.lon/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈksy.lon/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈksy.lon/[1]

Forms

ξῠ́λον (xúlon) n (genitive ξῠ́λου); second declension[1]

Etymology

Beekes compares Lithuanian šùlas (“post, pole, stave”) and Russian шу́ло (šúlo, “garden pole”), and similar Germanic words such as Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌻𐍃 (sauls, “pillar”) and Old High German sūl (“pole”).[2][1] The relation between these words has never been explained, and he asks whether all of them were taken from a non-Indo-European substrate.[2] Wiktionary sets up Proto-Indo-European *ksewlo-, traditionally derived from *kes- (“to scrape, comb”) or *ḱes- (“to cut”).[1] Later Attic vases spell it σύλον (súlon).[2] An original link with ξύω (xū́ō, “to scrape”) is unlikely, but that verb may have influenced it.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it mostly in the plural, for firewood and timber cut for use, and once in the singular for a dry log of oak or pine.[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From wood cut for use it came to mean anything made of wood: a cudgel (Herodotus), a bench, a banker's counter (Demosthenes), a perch, the front bench of the Athenian theatre (Aristophanes).[3][4] It also named instruments of punishment: the wooden collar, the stocks and the stake on which criminals were impaled.[3] Herodotus called cotton “wool from trees”, while from Xenophon on it also meant a living tree.[4][3]

The Septuagint uses it for the trees of Eden, timber, firewood and wooden idols.[6] In the New Testament and early Christian writers it is also the cross of Christ, and hanging “on the wood”.[7] The word lives on as Modern Greek ξύλο (xýlo).[8][9] English xylo- comes from it.[10]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for firewood and a log.[3][5]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod speaks of ship timber.[3][11]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a cudgel and calls cotton “wool from trees”.[3][4][11]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for living trees.[3][11]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – The comic poet Alexis uses it for the stake on which criminals were hung.[3][7][11]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the cross.[7]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek ξύλο (xýlo) continues it.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Wood cut for use; in the plural, firewood, timber.[3][4]
  2. A piece of wood: a log, plank, beam or post.[3][4]
  3. A wooden object: a club, cudgel; a bench, a banker's counter, a perch.[3][4]
  4. An instrument of punishment: a wooden collar, the stocks, a stake.[3]
  5. A living tree.[3][4]
  6. (figurative) A blockhead, a stubborn person.[3]
  7. A measure of length.[3][2]
  8. (New Testament) The cross.[7]

Word family

  • ἄξυλος (áxulos)
  • ἀποξυλόομαι (apoxulóomai)
  • αὐτόξυλος (autóxulos)
  • βαθύξυλος (bathúxulos)
  • λιπόξυλος (lipóxulos)
  • μονόξυλος (monóxulos)
  • ξυλεία (xuleíā)
  • ξυληγέω (xulēgéō)
  • ξυλήφιον (xulḗphion)
  • ξυλίζομαι (xulízomai)
  • ξύλινος (xúlinos)
  • ξυλοκοπέω (xulokopéō)
  • ξυλοκοπία (xulokopía)
  • ξυλοκόπος (xulokópos)
  • English xylo-

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  7. ^ a b c d 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
  8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge