οὐλή

Forms

οὐλή (oulḗ) f (genitive οὐλῆς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is usually traced to a pre-form inherited from Proto-Hellenic *wolsā́ or *wolnā́, with an initial digamma.^[2][3][4] There is no exact match outside Greek.^[2][4] The nearest word is Latin volnus (“wound”), whose own pre-form is unclear, and less certain are Welsh gweli (“wound, blood”) and Old Irish fuil (“blood”).^[2][4][3] These words have been grouped under a verbal root Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to draw, tear”), seen also in Latin vellō (“to pluck”) and perhaps in ἁλίσκομαι (halískomai, “to be caught”),^[2][4] while Wiktionary starts from *welh₃- (“to hit”).^[1] Chantraine finds none of these comparisons fully satisfactory in form or in meaning.^[3]

Ancient grammarians had other ideas: the Etymologicum Magnum derives it from a verb meaning “to be healthy”, and reports that Herodian took it from a verb meaning “to roll together”, of the drawn-together flesh.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Odyssey, for a wound that has healed over, a scar; the Iliad never has it.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical prose it is the ordinary word for a scar: Xenophon speaks of the scars of wounds, Plato of the marks of blows left on the body, and Aristotle notes that hair does not grow on scars.^[7] Hesychius explains it as a surface wound that has healed.^[8][3] Plutarch uses it figuratively, of the scar that slander leaves behind.^[7] In the Septuagint it is the mark on the skin in the laws on leprosy in Leviticus.^[9] Coptic borrowed it.^[10]

The derived verb οὐλόω (oulóō) “to scar over” is used by Aristotle and later writers.^[2][3] The word survives in Modern Greek as the learned ουλή (oulí), a scar left by a wound or an operation.^[11][3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for a scar.^[6][7]
• 5th century BC – Euripides and the Hippocratic writers use it for a scar.^[7][12]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the derived verb for scarring over.^[2][3]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch speaks figuratively of the scar of slander.^[7]
• About AD 800 – A Sahidic Coptic text has the borrowed word.^[10]
• Modern Greek – The learned ουλή (oulí) means a scar.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A scar, the mark of a healed wound.^[7][13][6]
2. (figurative) A lasting mark left by something, as by slander.^[7]

Word family

• οὐλόω (oulóō)
• οὐλοπρόσωπος (ouloprósōpos)

Related words

• Latin vulnus

Usage notes

LSJ also lists a singular οὐλή under οὐλαί (oulaí), the barley grains sprinkled at a sacrifice; that word is unrelated.^[7][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
14. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica