Etymologically
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σκολιός

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /sko.li.ós/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /sko.liˈos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /sko.liˈos/[1]

Forms

σκολῐός (skoliós) m (feminine σκολῐᾱ́, neuter σκολῐόν); first/second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to bend, curve”), from the o-grade of the root of σκέλος (skélos, “leg”), perhaps from a noun *σκόλος (*skólos) with the ending of σκαιός (skaiós);[2][3] compare Hesychius' σκολοῖς (skoloîs) “pruning-knives”.[2][3][1] Beekes and Frisk compare Latin scelus (“crime”), which would first have meant “something crooked”, the same development seen in σκολιός, though Chantraine calls the link disputed.[2][3][4] Other derivatives of the root are Old High German scelah and Old English sceolh “oblique, squinting” (German scheel, Old Norse skjalgr), and Albanian çalë (“lame”).[2][4][1] Beekes thinks κυλλός (kullós) and κῶλον (kôlon) are unlikely to be variants without ⟨s-⟩.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first use, in the Iliad, is already figurative: it speaks of crooked judgements (σκολιὰς θέμιστας, 16.387).[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The moral sense continues in Hesiod, who speaks of crooked words and judgements and of making the crooked straight, in Theognis, Pindar's crooked paths of deceit, and Plato.[6][7][8] A Spartan law quoted by Plutarch provides for the case that the people choose a crooked decision.[6][6] In the literal sense it means bent or curved: Theognis calls a slave's head bent, Herodotus describes a curved iron hook and winding rivers, and Plato a horse that is crooked in build.[6][7]

In the New Testament, Luke quotes Isaiah's promise that the crooked will be made straight, and Acts speaks of a “crooked generation”, after Deuteronomy.[9] Medieval vernacular Greek used it as a learned word for unjust, dishonest or perverse.[10] Modern Greek keeps it only in the learned phrase σκολιά οδός, for a hard road that takes effort.[11]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad speaks of crooked judgements.[5][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod speaks of crooked words and of making the crooked straight.[6][12]
  • 6th century BC – Theognis uses it of a slave's bent head.[6][7][12]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a curved hook and of winding rivers.[6][7][12]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of a badly built horse.[6][7][12]
  • 1st century AD – Acts speaks of a “crooked generation”.[9]
  • Medieval Greek – It is a learned word for unjust and perverse.[10]
  • Modern Greek – It survives in the learned phrase σκολιά οδός.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Curved, bent, crooked, opposed to straight; in the New Testament, the neuter plural, crooked places.[7][6][9]
  2. Bent sideways, askew; of a horse, crooked in build.[7][6]
  3. Of rivers and paths, winding.[7][6]
  4. Of ground, uneven.[7]
  5. Of judgements, words or actions, not straightforward: devious, unjust; riddling, obscure.[7][6][9]

Word family

  • σκόλιον (skólion)
  • σκολιότης (skoliótēs)
  • σκολιόομαι (skolióomai)
  • σκολίωσις (skolíōsis)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge