σάλος

Forms

σᾰ́λος (sálos) m (genitive σάλου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek: it was first a sailors' technical word, and its family has the variable velar suffixes typical of Pre-Greek, -αγ- (-ag-), -ακ- (-ak-) and -αγκ- (-agk-), with prenasalization, as in σάλαξ (sálax, “miners' sieve”), σάλαγξ (sálanx) and σαλάσσω (salássō, “to shake”).^[2][3] Furnée, cited by Beekes, also connects θάλασσα (thálassa) and ζάλη (zálē, “storm, whirlpool”).^[2] Chantraine and Frisk find no convincing etymology;^[4][5] Chantraine notes that even if the word is inherited, nothing explains its initial σ- (s-).^[4][5] Wiktionary derives it instead from Proto-Hellenic *twálos, from Proto-Indo-European *tewh₂- (“to swell”).^[1] Babiniotis thinks of Proto-Indo-European *sal- (“salt, sea”) with the initial sibilant kept, or else a loan in nautical vocabulary.^[6]

Latin salum (“the open sea”) may have been borrowed from it.^[2][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 5th-century BC tragedy: Euripides uses it of the swell of the sea and of the shaking of an earthquake, and Sophocles' Antigone of the city as a ship that the gods have set upright after a heavy sea.^{[8][9][10][6]}

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was the rolling swell of the sea and the tossing of those on it, and Sophocles' Philoctetes sleeps on the shore worn out by long tossing at sea.^[9][10] From the ship of state it moved to political turmoil (Sophocles, Lysias, Plutarch) and to any disturbance of an army, a city or the soul in Plutarch.^[10] Polybius and Diodorus use it of an open roadstead where ships ride at anchor, as opposed to a harbour.^[9][10]

The Septuagint has it of the sea in Jonah and the Psalms, and Luke 21:25 of the surge of the waves.^[11] Medieval Greek also used it of the agitation of the soul, ^[12] Babiniotis derives the adjective σαλός (salós, “foolish, mad”) from it with the accent moved, while Kriaras derives that word from σαλεύω (saleúō).^[6][12] In Modern Greek σάλος (sálos) is a learned word for a public uproar caused by some event.^[13]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of the city as a storm-tossed ship, and Euripides of the swell of the sea and of an earthquake.^[9][10][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Lysias uses it of political turmoil.^[10][14]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of an open roadstead.^[9][10][14]
• 1st century AD – Luke's Gospel uses it of the surge of the waves.^[11]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of disturbance in an army, a city or the soul.^[10][14]
• Modern Greek – σάλος (sálos) means an uproar in public opinion.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The swell or surge of the sea; the tossing of a ship or of those on board.^[9][10][11]
2. A shaking or tremor, as of an earthquake.^[9][10]
3. (figurative) Turmoil, disturbance, in politics, an army or the soul.^[10][2]
4. An open roadstead where ships ride at anchor, as opposed to a harbour.^[9][10]

Related words

• σαλεύω (saleúō)
• Latin salum

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c 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
12. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge