πέλεια

Forms

πέλειᾰ (péleia) f (genitive πελείᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The bird was named after its grey colour.^[2][3] Beekes and Frisk take πέλεια as the feminine of a lost u-stem adjective Ancient Greek *πελύς (*pelús, “grey”), its accent being that of feminines of u-stems such as λίγεια (lígeia); that adjective is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pelH- (“grey”).^[2][3][1] It is thus related to πελιός (peliós), πολιός (poliós) and πελιτνός (pelitnós), all words for grey or livid colours.^[2][3]

Latin named the dove the same way: Latin palumbēs (“wood pigeon”) goes with palleō (“to be pale”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is the wild pigeon or dove, and a fleeing person is compared to it; it is often joined with the epithet τρήρων (trḗrōn).^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

LSJ identifies the bird especially as the wild rock pigeon.^[5] The word stayed poetic: after Homer it is used by the tragedians and by Apollonius of Rhodes.^[6][5]

The prophetic priestesses of Zeus at Dodona were called πέλειαι, “doves”, as Pausanias records.^[5] Frisk and Beekes explain the name by the grey hair of these old women, and Hesychius records that on Cos and in Epirus old men and women were called by the related word πελείους (peleíous).^[3][2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad compares someone fleeing to a dove.^[5][4]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use it of winged doves.^[5][6]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias records that the priestesses of Dodona were called “doves”.^[5]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius records the related word for old people on Cos and in Epirus.^[3][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wild pigeon or dove, especially the rock pigeon.^[5][6]
2. (in the plural) The prophetic priestesses of Dodona.^[5]

Word family

• πελειάς (peleiás)

Related words

• πελιός (peliós)
• πολιός (poliós)
• Latin palumbēs

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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge