πύξ

Forms

πύξ (púx) ^[1] Hesychius also records πύξ as a noun, glossing it “fist”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is an old adverb meaning “with the fist”, built on the same element as underlies πυγμή (pugmḗ, “fist; boxing”), πυγών (pugṓn, “a measure of length”) and πύκτης (púktēs, “boxer”).^[4][3] Beekes thinks a nominal origin most likely for πύξ;^[4] Chantraine reports that its final -ξ has been explained as an adverbial -s, as a nominative and as a dative plural.^[3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *pewǵ- (“to punch”).^[1]

The only clear cognates are Latin: Latin pugil (“boxer”) and pugnus (“fist”), from which come pugnō (“to fight”) and pugna (“battle”).^[3][4] Fick, Walde and others connect the group further with pungō (“to prick, sting”), the clenched fist being named as the thing that stings or wounds.^[4][3][5] Words for the fist differ from language to language, and even within Greek, which also has γρόνθος (grónthos).^[3]

Ancient grammarians derived πύξ from πτύσσω (ptússō, “to fold”) by dropping letters, because the fingers are folded when one strikes.^[6][7] Philoxenus (1st century BC) and the Etymologicum Magnum give this explanation.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Homer, always of boxing: in the Iliad Polydeuces is πὺξ ἀγαθός, “good with the fist”, that is, a fine boxer (3.237), and in book 23 it means to box or at boxing (23.621, 634, 660).^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In the choral lyric of Pindar and Simonides it is the word for winning or excelling at boxing in the games.^[9][10] In Attic comedy and prose it means striking or being struck with the fist: Aristophanes, Xenophon and Lysias use it so, and the Hippocratic Diseases speaks of holding the fingers clenched in a fist.^[9][10] Theocritus has a man punched on the temple.^[9]

The phrase πὺξ λάξ, “with fist and heel”, joins it to λάξ (láx).^[11] Modern Greek keeps πύξ only in that frozen phrase, while its relative πυγμή (pugmḗ) survives as a learned word.^[6]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of boxing, and of Polydeuces as a boxer.^[8][9]
• Before the 6th century BC – The Hesiodic Shield describes fighters who fought “with fists and by dragging”.^[9][12]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar praises an athlete who won excellence at boxing.^[9][12]
• 5th century BC – A Hippocratic treatise uses it of fingers clenched in a fist.^[9][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes, Xenophon and Lysias use it of hitting someone with the fist.^[9][10][12]
• 1st century BC – Philoxenus derives it from πτύσσω “to fold”.^[6]
• Modern Greek – It survives only in the fixed phrase “with fist and heel”.^[6][11]

Meanings

Adverb

1. With the fist, of striking someone or being struck.^[10][9]
2. In or at boxing, of contending, excelling or winning.^[10][9][8]

Related words

• πυγμή (pugmḗ)
• πύκτης (púktēs)
• πυγμαῖος (pugmaîos)
• πύγμαχος (púgmakhos)
• Latin pugnus
• Latin pugil

Usage notes

LSJ and Pape also record a late feminine noun πύξ (genitive πυγός), a later form of πυγή (pūgḗ, “buttocks”), which has nothing to do with the adverb.^[9][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
3. ^ a b c d e f 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
4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
6. ^ a b c d e Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg