σίαλον

Forms

σῐ́ᾰλον (síalon) n (genitive σῐᾰ́λου); second declension^[1] Ionic and later Greek also σίελον (síelon), and a masculine σίελος (síelos).^[2][3] The grammarian Moeris called σίαλον the Attic form and σίελος the form of common Hellenistic Greek.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is unclear:^[4][3] Beekes thinks it is probably an onomatopoeic word,^[4] and Chantraine and Frisk call it an expressive popular word, like πτύαλον (ptúalon, “spittle”) and πτύω (ptū́ō, “to spit”), to which it must be related in some way that cannot be made precise.^[3][5] Pokorny lists it under the expressive root Proto-Indo-European *(s)p(h)i̯ēu- (“to spit”).^[6]

A link with Sanskrit क्षीवति (kṣī́vati, “spits”) is formally difficult according to Beekes,^[4] and Chantraine and Frisk reject it.^[3][5] Wiktionary compares Latin salīva (“saliva”),^[1] which older dictionaries derived from the Greek word.^[7][8] Hesychius records a Cypriot verb σίαι (síai, “to spit”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Hippocratic writings and in the comic poet Pherecrates, in the 5th century BC,^[2][4][9] meaning spittle or saliva; the Hippocratic treatise On Flesh also uses it for the fluid of the joints.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to medicine and everyday prose: Xenophon, Aristotle, Theophrastus and Polybius use it for spittle.^[10][2] Aristotle's Rhetoric quotes a simile by Democrates that compares orators to nurses who smear the children with spittle.^[2] The medical writers formed the verb σιαλίζω (sialízō, “to slaver, foam”) and the noun σιαλισμός (sialismós, “flow of saliva”).^[3][5]

The Hellenistic form σίελος appears in the Septuagint and in Aretaeus.^[2] Medieval Greek made a diminutive *σιάλιον, which became σάλιον (sálion) and then Modern Greek σάλιο (sálio), the everyday word for saliva.^[11][12] Italian medical words in scialo- are formed from its stem.^[13]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it for saliva and for the fluid of the joints, and Pherecrates uses it in comedy.^[2][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it in the Memorabilia.^[2][14][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle quotes a simile with it in the Rhetoric.^[2][9]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it.^[10][9]
• 2nd century AD – Aretaeus uses the Hellenistic masculine σίελος, and Moeris calls σίαλον the Attic form.^[2][9]
• Modern Greek – The everyday word for saliva is σάλιο (sálio), from a medieval diminutive of σίαλον.^[11][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Spittle, saliva, slaver.^[2][10]
2. (medicine) Synovial fluid, the fluid of the joints.^[2][4]

Word family

• σιαλίς (sialís)
• σιαλοποιός (sialopoiós)
• σιαλίζω (sialízō)
• σιαλώδης (sialṓdēs)

Related words

• πτύω (ptū́ō)
• πτύαλον (ptúalon)
• Latin salīva
• Modern Greek σάλιο (sálio)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
13. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
14. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux