πόλτος

Forms

πόλτος (póltos) m (genitive πόλτου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Chantraine calls its origin obscure.^[2] Its formation recalls nouns such as χόρτος (khórtos, “fodder”) and φόρτος (phórtos, “load”), and its meaning πάλη (pálē, “fine flour”) and πέλανος (pélanos, “thick mixture of meal”).^[3][2] Beekes notes that a form *pol-to- would recall these words, which go back to *plH-eh₂- and *pelh₂-no-, but the link would need a special sound law, and the nouns may be recent derivatives of πάλλω (pállō).^[4] It has been compared with Latin puls (“porridge”) and pollen (“fine flour”).^[4][1][2] Frisk thinks the Latin word is probably a loan from Greek.^[3]

Van Beek suggests instead that it is a substrate word, related to παλάθη (paláthē, “cake of preserved fruit”) and πλάθανον (pláthanon, “cake mould”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alcman is the first to use it, for porridge.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

Epicharmus speaks of boiling porridge, and Plutarch uses it in the Roman period.^[5] Medical writers such as Archigenes and Galen sometimes accent it on the last syllable.^[5] Latin pultārius, a vessel originally for porridge, came back into Greek as πολτάριος (poltários) in Galen.^[3]

Babiniotis notes the oxytone form in Athenaeus as well.^[6] Modern Greek πολτός (poltós, “pulp, paste”) is a learned form of the word, its accent perhaps shifted after another noun.^[7]

Timeline

• 7th century BC – Alcman uses it for porridge.^[5][8]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it.^[9][8]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it.^[5][9][8]
• 2nd century AD – Archigenes and Galen sometimes accent it on the last syllable, and Galen has the Latin loan πολτάριος (poltários).^[5][3][8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek πολτός (poltós) is a learned form of it.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Porridge of meal.^[5][4]

Related words

• πάλη (pálē)
• πέλανος (pélanos)
• Latin puls

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
3. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux