πάσσαλος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /pás.sa.los/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpas.sa.los/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpas.sa.los/^[1]

Forms

πάσσᾰλος (pássalos) m (genitive πασσᾰ́λου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek: he finds the usual derivation from a root meaning “stiff, hard” semantically unlikely, since a peg is not something that has become stiff but something fixed to a wall or pillar, and he takes the suffix ⟨-αλ-⟩, like the ⟨-ᾱκ-⟩ of the Megarian form πάσσαξ (pássax), to be Pre-Greek.^[2][3] The variation between Attic πάτταλος (páttalos) and ⟨σσ⟩ elsewhere is one of the features he lists.^[3]

Frisk, Chantraine and Babiniotis instead connect it with πήγνυμι (pḗgnumi, “to fix”) and Latin pacīscor (“to make a pact”), through *πάκι̯αλος (*pákyalos) from a stem *pak-, and Frisk compares pālus (“stake”) with an s-suffix.^[4][5][6] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to attach”).^[1] The Mycenaean word pa-sa-ro is usually kept apart from this word.^[7][4]

Latin borrowed it as pessulus (“bolt”).^[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the peg on a wall on which arms, clothes and other things were hung: a tunic is hung on one, and a lyre and a bow are taken down from pegs.^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

The hanging peg stays the main sense in lyric and tragedy: Pindar takes the lyre down from its peg.^[9] Herodotus uses pegs as fastenings for ropes and bridles, Aristophanes speaks of knocking pegs into a wall, and Theophrastus of a peg used to make a hole in a vine.^[9][6] Comedy also used it of a peg to prop open an animal's mouth or gag a person, of a penis, and of something trifling.^[6][7] Inscriptions use it of stakes marking boundaries.^[9]

The Attic form was πάτταλος.^[9][6] Modern Greek πάσσαλος (pássalos) is a learned continuation of the ancient word, a stake or pile driven into the ground for fences or foundations, beside the popular word παλούκι (paloúki).^[10][5]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of pegs for hanging arms, clothes and a lyre.^[9][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar takes a lyre from its peg.^[9][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of pegs for tying bridles.^[9][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses the Attic form πάτταλος, also figuratively.^[9][6][11]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of a peg for piercing a vine.^[9][11]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word for a stake or pile.^[10][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A peg on which arms, clothes or a lyre are hung.^[9][6]
2. A peg or pin for fastening ropes; a stake, as for marking a boundary.^[9][6]
3. A peg used to hold an animal's mouth open, or as a gag.^[9][6]
4. (comedy, figurative) The penis; a trifle.^[6]

Word family

• πασσαλεύω (passaleúō)
• πασσαλόω (passalóō)

Related words

• πήγνυμι (pḗgnumi)
• Latin pessulus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b 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
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge