πύλη

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /pý.lɛː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpy.li/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpy.li/^[1]

Forms

πῠ́λη (púlē) f (genitive πῠ́λης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] Unlike the inherited θύρα (thúra, “door”), it has no etymology, and Frisk took it for a technical loanword from the vocabulary of building, like μέγαρον (mégaron).^[3][2] Beekes thinks it possibly Pre-Greek.^[3][1] Babiniotis also counts it among the probable loans of the building vocabulary.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, for the gate of a city or another place, often in the plural for a single gate of two wings.^[5][6] Homer also speaks of the gates of Hades, of the gates of dreams and of the gates of the sun.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus uses the singular for one wing of a pair of gates, and the tragedians use it for the door of a house.^[6] It came to mean a pass through mountains: Herodotus calls Thermopylae simply Πύλαι (Púlai), “the Gates”, and Pindar uses it for the straits of Gibraltar.^[6][3] Empedocles uses it for an entrance or opening, and Pindar speaks figuratively of the gates of songs.^[6] In Ptolemaic Egypt the word meant a custom-house.^[6]

The Septuagint uses it hundreds of times, for the gates of towns, camps and prisons, and “in the gates” for a public place.^[7] In the New Testament it is used of the gates of cities and of the gates of Hades.^[8][6] Modern Greek πύλη (píli) is a learned word for a gate or main entrance of a palace, temple or other public building.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the gates of cities and the gates of Hades, and the Odyssey for the gates of dreams.^[5][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for the straits of Gibraltar and, figuratively, for the gates of songs.^[6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a mountain pass and calls Thermopylae “the Gates”.^[6]
• 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it for an entrance or opening.^[6]
• 2nd century BC – A papyrus from Tebtunis uses it for a custom-house.^[6]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word for a gate or main entrance.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. One wing of a pair of gates; mostly in the plural, the gates of a city, camp or the like.^[6][5][3]
2. (tragedy) The door of a house.^[6]
3. In the phrase “the gates of Hades”, the nether world.^[6]
4. A mountain pass; a narrow strait.^[6][3]
5. An entrance, opening.^[6]
6. (papyri) A custom-house.^[6]
7. Figuratively, the gates of songs, of old age.^[6]

Word family

• πυλών (pulṓn)
• πυλωρός (pulōrós)
• πυλίς (pulís)
• ἑπτάπυλος (heptápulos)
• Θερμοπύλαι (Thermopúlai)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki