πλακόεις

Forms

πλᾰκόεις (plakóeis) m (feminine πλᾰκόεσσα, neuter πλᾰκόεν); first/third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek πλάξ (pláx, “flat surface”) + -όεις (-óeis).^[1][2][3] πλάξ (pláx) seems to come from a root noun Proto-Indo-European *pl̥k-s.^[3] Beekes compares, with other vowels, Latvian plakt (“to become flat”), plaka (“low-lying place, plain”) and Old Norse flaga (“thin layer”).^[3] Pokorny lists them under Proto-Indo-European *plāk- (“wide and flat”).^[4][5]

Its contracted form, πλακοῦς (plakoûs, “flat cake”), is the ordinary word for the cake, and Latin placenta comes from it, though the phonetic details are unclear.^[3][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The uncontracted form is first found in an epigram of Theodoridas in the Greek Anthology (6.155), as a noun for a flat cake.^[6][8][9] The contracted πλακοῦς (plakoûs) is older, in comedy from Aristophanes on.^[6][10]

Semantic evolution

As a noun it stands for πλακόεις ἄρτος (plakóeis ártos), “flat bread”, and so names a flat cake, almost always in the contracted form πλακοῦς (plakoûs).^[8][11][6] Phaenias used that form for the flat seed of the mallow as well.^[6][8]

As an adjective, “flat, level”, it is a late poetic word: Dionysius Periegetes uses it of a plain, and the Orphic Argonautica of a piece of ground.^[6][2][3]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes' Acharnians uses the contracted form πλακοῦς (plakoûs) for a flat cake.^[6][8]
• 3rd century BC – Theodoridas uses the uncontracted form for the cake.^[6][9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Dionysius Periegetes uses it as an adjective, “flat”, of a plain.^[6][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Flat, level, of ground.^[6][12][8]

Noun

1. A flat cake, the same as πλακοῦς (plakoûs).^[8][6][11]

Word family

• πλακοῦς (plakoûs)

Related words

• πλάξ (pláx)
• Latin placenta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
3. ^ a b c d e f 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
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b c d e f Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
12. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg