πέλω

Forms

πέλω (pélō) ^[1] Also middle πέλομαι (pélomai), with the same sense; epic aorist ἔπλετο (épleto), active ἔπλε (éple).^[2][3] Aeolic infinitive πέλην (pélēn).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kʷélō,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁- (“to turn, to move around”), a thematic present.^[5][6] Because the labiovelar became π before ε, the form must be Aeolic.^[5] Ionic and Attic would have τ-, as in τέλλομαι (téllomai) and τέλος (télos).^[5] The zero-grade aorist ἔπλετο (épleto) has no counterpart outside Greek.^[5][7]

Cognate with Latin colō (“to till, to inhabit”), Sanskrit चरति (cárati, “moves about, grazes”) and Albanian siell (“to turn, to bring”).^[5][1] The old sense of herding and farming survives in compounds such as αἰπόλος (aipólos, “goatherd”) and βουκόλος (boukólos, “cowherd”), and ἀμφίπολος (amphípolos, “attendant”) matches Latin anculus (“servant”).^[5][7] The verb is unrelated to Latin pellō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses the active and the middle without distinction, as a verb of existence (“there was a din of teeth”) and as a copula, “to become, to be”; the aorist ἔπλετο means “has become”, and so “is”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Cunliffe gives “to turn” as the original sense, and Beekes notes that “to stir” survives in compounds.^[3][5] After Homer the verb is poetic: Solon, Pindar, the tragedians (often in lyric), Parmenides, Theocritus, Apollonius of Rhodes and Nonnus use it, the middle more often than the active.^[4][2] Theocritus has the Aeolic forms.^[4][2]

Timeline

• 700s BC – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for “to be, to come about, to become”.^[4][3]
• 7th–6th century BC – Solon uses the active πέλει.^[4][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar and Aeschylus use it in lyric verse.^[4][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses the first person πέλω.^[4][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses Aeolic forms of it.^[4][2][8]
• 4th–5th century AD – Nonnus still uses it in epic verse.^[4][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (active and middle) To come into existence, to arise, to take place, to be.^[2][4]
2. (as a copula) To become, to turn out to be, to be (such and such).^[2][4]
3. (aorist) To have become, and so to be.^[4][3]

Word family

• ἐπιπέλομαι (epipélomai)
• θαλαμηπόλος (thalamēpólos)
• πόλος (pólos)
• ὀνειρόπολος (oneirópolos)
• αἰπόλος (aipólos)
• βουκόλος (boukólos)
• ἀμφίπολος (amphípolos)
• περίπολος (perípolos)

Related words

• τέλλομαι (téllomai)
• τέλος (télos)
• κύκλος (kúklos)
• πάλιν (pálin)
• τῆλε (têle)
• Latin colō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
7. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge