σκόπελος
Pronunciation
- 5th-century BC Attic: /skó.pe.los/[1]
- 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈsko.pe.los/[1]
- 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈsko.pe.los/[1]
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the starting point after all.[2] The older link with an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *skep- (“to cut”) is outdated, since such a root does not seem to have existed.[2][3]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
- A lookout place; hence a peak, headland, crag.[8][4]
- A small rocky island; a mountain; a city's acropolis.[4][8]
- In the plural, rocks in a river or on a coast or mountainside.[4]
- (Koine) A watch-tower.[8][2]
Word family
- σκοπελίζω (skopelízō)
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
- ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
- ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
- ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
- ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
- ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
- ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge