Etymologically
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πέλαγος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /pé.la.ɡos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpe.la.ɣos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpe.la.ɣos/[1]

Forms

πέλᾰγος (pélagos) n (genitive πελᾰ́γους); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.[1] Frisk connects it with πλάξ (pláx, “flat surface, plain of the sea”) and πλάγιος (plágios, “athwart, sloping”), and Chantraine with πελανός (pelanós), from a base Proto-Indo-European *peləg- with the suffix seen in τέναγος (ténagos, “shallow water”).[2][3] Πάπυρος likewise traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂- (“flat, broad, spread out”).[4] Beekes objects that nothing confirms a link with that root and that the link with those stems is phonetically impossible, and considers it more probably Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek.[5] A comparison with a Hebrew word for “canal” is rejected.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, for the open sea: in the Iliad the “great sea”, and in the Odyssey the phrase ἁλὸς ἐν πελάγεσσιν “in the expanses of the sea”.[3][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Chantraine notes that it is distinct both from ἅλς (háls) and θάλασσα (thálassa), the ordinary word for the sea: πέλαγος is the high sea, the open expanse.[3] From Pindar and Herodotus on it names particular seas, with the name of the sea in the genitive or as an adjective, and the tragedians use it figuratively for a sea of troubles.[8][9] Aristotle contrasts the open sea with the shallow water of harbours.[10]

Latin borrowed it as pelagus.[11] Medieval Greek also had the popular forms πέλαγο and πέλαο, which survive in Modern Greek dialects; standard Modern Greek πέλαγος (pélagos) is the learned continuation, meaning the open sea or a named part of the sea.[12][13]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the open sea.[8][7]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of named seas.[8][14]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle contrasts the open sea with harbour water.[10][14]
  • Medieval Greek – The popular forms πέλαγο and πέλαο appear.[12]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek πέλαγος (pélagos) is the open sea.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The open sea, the high sea; with ἁλός or πόντου, the expanse of the sea.[8][9]
  2. A particular sea, named in the genitive or by an adjective.[8]
  3. (figurative) A sea, a vast mass, of troubles or the like.[9][8]

Word family

  • πελάγιος (pelágios)
  • πελαγίζω (pelagízō)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  3. ^ a b c 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. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
  7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b 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
  11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  12. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  14. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge