σκόπελος

Forms

σκόπελος (skópelos) m (genitive σκοπέλου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2] The usual view connects it with σκοπός (skopós, “watcher”) and σκοπιά (skopiā́, “lookout”), from the root of σκέπτομαι (sképtomai, “to look at”), so that its first meaning would be a lookout place.^[2][3][4] Πάπυρος and Babiniotis take it as formed from Ancient Greek σκοπός (skopós) + -ελος (-elos).^[5][6] The meaning “watch-tower” is later in the texts, but Beekes thinks it might have been the starting point after all.^[2] The older link with an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *skep- (“to cut”) is outdated, since such a root does not seem to have existed.^[2][3]

The Greeks too connected it with looking out: Hesychius defines it as a high place from which one can survey the surroundings.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a crag or headland: a jutting rock in the Iliad, and in the Odyssey the two rocks of Scylla and Charybdis.^[8][9][4]

Semantic evolution

Lyric and tragic poets use it of a mountain peak, an island and a city's acropolis: Pindar of the Theban citadel and Euripides of the Athenian one.^[8][4] In Herodotus and Plutarch the plural means rocks in a river or on the coast.^[4] A papyrus of the 2nd century AD uses it for a watch-tower.^[8][2]

Latin borrowed it as scopulus (“rock, cliff”).^[2][10] The word continued through medieval Greek.^[11] In Modern Greek σκόπελος (skópelos) is a reef that barely breaks the surface, and figuratively a serious obstacle.^[12][5]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of a jutting crag, and the Odyssey of the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis.^[8][9]
• 7th century BC – Alcman uses it of a small island.^[4][13]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of the Theban acropolis.^[8][13]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the plural for rocks in a river or on the coast.^[4][13]
• 2nd century AD – A papyrus uses it for a watch-tower.^[8]
• Modern Greek – It means a reef and, figuratively, an obstacle.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lookout place; hence a peak, headland, crag.^[8][4]
2. A small rocky island; a mountain; a city's acropolis.^[4][8]
3. In the plural, rocks in a river or on a coast or mountainside.^[4]
4. (Koine) A watch-tower.^[8][2]

Word family

• σκοπελίζω (skopelízō)

Related words

• σκοπός (skopós)
• σκοπιά (skopiā́)
• Latin scopulus

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b 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