σκέλος

Forms

σκέλος (skélos) n (genitive σκέλεος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *skélos (“curve, bending”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to bend, curve”).^[1][2] Beekes and Chantraine compare Latin scelus (“crime”), which would first have meant “something crooked”, the same development seen in σκολιός (skoliós, “crooked, unjust”);^[2] Chantraine adds that this comparison is disputed.^[2][3] Other formations from the root are Old High German scelah and Old English sceolh (“oblique, squinting”), and Old Norse skjalgr (“oblique”), with a suffix *-ko-, and Albanian çalë (“lame”), with *-no-.^[2][3] Beekes thinks it unlikely that κυλλός (kullós) and κῶλον (kôlon, “limb”) are forms of the same root without s-.^[2]

σκελίς (skelís, “ribs of beef”) may be related, but may also belong to another root or be Pre-Greek.^[1]

Ancient grammarians derived σκέλος from σκέλλω (skéllō, “to dry up”), or, as Orion did, from the “splitting” of the two legs or from κέλευθος (kéleuthos, “road”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has it only once, in the Iliad, where a spear strikes a warrior in the upper leg or buttock.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is the ordinary word for the leg, from the hip down, of people and animals: Herodotus says that a camel has four thighs and four knees in its hind legs.^[5][7] Aristophanes uses it of dancers kicking up their legs.^[5] The phrase “on the leg”, of soldiers stepping back while still facing the enemy, meant “gradually”.^[7] In the plural it named the two long walls that joined Athens to Piraeus, and Megara to its port.^[7]

In John's Gospel the soldiers break the legs of the crucified men to hasten their death.^[8] The word lived on in medieval Greek and survives as the learned Modern Greek σκέλος (skélos).^[9][10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it once, for the upper leg.^[5][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a camel's hind legs.^[5][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of dancers and for the Long Walls.^[5][7][11]
• New Testament – John's Gospel tells of the breaking of the legs of the crucified.^[8]
• Modern Greek – σκέλος (skélos) survives as a learned word.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The leg, from the hip downwards, of people or animals.^[5][7]
2. (in a phrase) “On the leg”: Gradually, of a retreat made while facing the enemy.^[7]
3. (plural) The Long Walls joining a city to its port.^[7]

Related words

• σκολιός (skoliós)
• Latin scelus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
5. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b 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. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge