Etymologically
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πελεκάν

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /pe.le.kán/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /pe.leˈkan/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /pe.leˈkan/[1]

Forms

πελεκᾰ́ν (pelekán) m (genitive πελεκᾶνος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is derived from πέλεκυς (pélekus, “axe”), because the bird's bill resembles an axe in shape or use.[2][3][1] The suffix -άν is that of ethnic names such as Ἀκαρνάν, and Beekes counts it among the Pre-Greek suffixes.[2][3][4] Furnée compared Hesychius' σπέλεκτος “pelican”.[2][4]

The same base gave other bird names: πελεκᾶς (pelekâs, “green woodpecker”) and πελεκῖνος (pelekînos, “pelican”), both in Aristophanes.[2][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in the comic poet Anaxandrides.[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle describes the pelican, and Antoninus Liberalis and Aelian mention it later.[5][6] Medieval Greek also has πελεκάνος, which is already late antique and is the Modern Greek form.[7] The Physiologus calls the pelican a bird that loves its young and takes it as an image of Christ.[7]

Timeline

  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes has πελεκᾶς and πελεκῖνος.[2][8]
  • 4th century BC – Anaxandrides and Aristotle use πελεκάν.[5][8]
  • Medieval Greek – the Physiologus makes the pelican an image of Christ.[7]
  • Modern Greek – πελεκάνος.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The pelican, Pelecanus onocrotalus.[5][6]
  • πέλεκυς (pélekus)
  • πελεκῖνος (pelekînos)
  • English pelican

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
  7. ^ a b c d Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  8. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge