πολιός

Forms

πολῐός (poliós) m (feminine πολῐᾱ́, neuter πολῐόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *poľľós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pol-yós, from the root *pelH- (“pale, grey”).^[1] Beekes prefers *pol-io- to the older *πολιϝός (*poliwós), which rested on the uncertain Mycenaean po-ri-wa and on a comparison with a Sanskrit word for “grey”.^[2] With the suffix of colour words *-wo-, the same root gives Lithuanian pal̃vas (“straw-coloured”), Proto-Slavic *polvъ (“pale, fallow”), Old Norse fǫlr (“pale”) and Proto-Germanic *falwaz.^[2][1] Wiktionary also compares Latin palleō (“to be pale”).^[1] Within Greek it is related to πελιός (peliós, “livid”) and πελιδνός (pelidnós).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it of the grey, foaming sea (from Iliad 1.350), of grey iron, of the pelt of a grey wolf, and of the grey head and hair of old men.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It meant a light, indeterminate grey, of iron, wolves, crows and a swan, and of the sea flecked with foam, from Homer and Archilochus to Sophocles.^[5][4] Its most frequent use was for hair grey with age, so that “the grey ones” were old men, and old age itself was grey in Theognis, Pindar and Euripides;^[4][5] Hesiod calls the Graeae grey from birth.^[4][5] Euripides and Menander use it of well-aged wine, and Aeschylus, Euripides and Plato of time-honoured laws and stories.^[5] It is rare in Attic prose.^[4]

The plant name πόλιον (pólion) (a germander) comes from the colour of its flower, and Aristotle has πολιότης (poliótēs, “greyness”).^[2] Medieval Greek used it of grey hair and, as a noun, of an old man.^[7] It survives in Modern Greek as πολιός (poliós), “grey-haired”.^[8][3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of the grey sea, grey iron, a wolf and grey heads.^[4][5]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod calls the Graeae grey from birth.^[4][9]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of aged wine and of time-honoured stories.^[5][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the feminine plural for grey hairs and forms πολιότης (poliótēs).^[4][2][9]
• Medieval Greek – The masculine is used as a noun for an old man.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Grey, whitish; of iron, wolves, birds; of the sea, white with foam.^[4][5]
2. Of hair and people, grey or white with age, hoary; feminine plural as a noun, grey hairs.^[4][5]
3. Aged, old; of wine, well aged; of laws and stories, time-honoured.^[5]
4. Of spring or the air, bright, clear.^[5]

Word family

• πολιότης (poliótēs)
• πόλιον (pólion)

Related words

• πελιός (peliós)
• πελιδνός (pelidnós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge