πύργος

Forms

πῠ́ργος (púrgos) m (genitive πῠ́ργου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it clearly Pre-Greek, a technical term of building.^[2][3] The Hesychian glosses φύρκος (phúrkos, “wall”) and ⟨φ(ο)ύρκορ⟩ “stronghold” show a variant with different stops, and the place names Πύργος in Elis and Φύρκος in Thucydides vary in the same way.^[2][3] He relates it to the Trojan citadel Πέργαμος (Pérgamos), whose suffix ⟨-αμο-⟩ is Pre-Greek, and notes that an Urartian word for “palace” may point to Asia Minor.^[2]

Kretschmer took it as a loan from Germanic, because of its likeness to German Burg and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐍃 (baurgs, “town, tower”), which come from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“high”); a native Greek form of that root would begin with /pʰ/, not /p/.^[2][1] Beekes and Babiniotis reject the Germanic loan.^[2][4] Heubeck derived Πέργαμος, and with it πύργος, from an Indo-European language of Asia Minor, citing Hittite parku- (“high”).^[5][6] Babiniotis adds that it is unclear whether Latin burgus is related or a parallel borrowing.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for a tower on a city wall, for the walls of Troy with their towers in the plural, and for a close column of warriors.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

In the Odyssey the dead Ajax is called the Greeks' “tower”, and the sense of a defender or bulwark runs through Alcaeus, Pindar and Euripides.^[7][8] Herodotus and Thucydides use it for the towers of city walls, Xenophon for the movable siege tower, and later writers for the tower on a war elephant.^[7][8] In Demosthenes it is a separate building on an estate where the women slaves lived.^[7][8]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is the watchtower of a vineyard and the tower in Siloam; it may also mean a farm building, a sense the papyri attest.^[10][2] In the Shepherd of Hermas the Church is pictured as a tower being built.^[10]

Medieval Greek kept it, and Modern Greek πύργος (pýrgos) is still the tower, the rook in chess and a fortified tower-house.^[11][12] Triantafyllidis notes that some of its modern senses are learned loans of meaning from French tour and English turret.^[12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for the towers and walls of Troy and for a column of warriors.^[7][8][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for towers on city walls.^[7][13]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for a movable siege tower.^[7][8][13]
• 4th century BC – Demosthenes uses it for the women's quarters on an estate.^[7][8][13]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the watchtower of a vineyard.^[10]
• Modern Greek – Πύργος means a tower and the rook in chess.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tower, especially one on a city wall; in the plural, city walls with their towers.^[7][8]
2. A movable siege tower; a tower on the back of a war elephant.^[7][8]
3. (figurative) A bulwark or tower of strength, of a person.^[7][8]
4. A body of troops in close order, a column.^[8][2]
5. A separate building on an estate, where women slaves lived and worked.^[7][8]
6. (Koine) A watchtower in a vineyard; a farm building.^[10][2]

Word family

• ἀντίπυργος (antípurgos)
• ἀντιπυργόω (antipurgóō)
• ἀπύργωτος (apúrgōtos)
• ἑπτάπυργος (heptápurgos)
• εὔπυργος (eúpurgos)
• καλλίπυργος (kallípurgos)
• μεσοπύργιον (mesopúrgion)
• πολύπυργος (polúpurgos)
• πρόπυργος (própurgos)
• πυργηδόν (purgēdón)
• πυργίδιον (purgídion)

Related words

• φύρκος (phúrkos)
• Πέργαμος (Pérgamos)
• Latin burgus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c d 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
11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge