Etymologically
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σπήλαιον

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /spɛ̌ː.lai̯.on/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈspi.lɛ.on/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈspi.le.on/[1]

Forms

σπήλαιον (spḗlaion) n (genitive σπελαίου); second declension[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, an enlargement of a stem σπηλ- (spēl-) that also underlies σπῆλυγξ (spêlunx, “cave”).[2][3] He points to the s- that can be present or absent, the prenasalization and the suffix -υγγ- (-ung-) of the latter, and to Furnée's comparison of πῆλυξ (pêlux, “fissure”) and an Etruscan word for “cave, tomb”.[3][2] The ending of σπήλαιον may have been modelled on ὑπόγαιον (hupógaion, “underground chamber”).[2][4] Frisk and Chantraine see in the stem with /l/ a derivative of σπέος (spéos, “cave”), as νεφέλη (nephélē) stands beside νέφος (néphos), but find no further etymology.[4][5]

Latin borrowed it as spēlaeum, and spēlunca comes from the same Greek source, and Albanian shpellë (“rock, cave”) is also a loan.[2][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first texts with the word are Plato's: in the Republic it is the cave of his allegory.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle uses it in his works on animals and on meteorology.[8] The Septuagint Jeremiah has the phrase “den of robbers”, which the Gospels repeat, and the New Testament also uses it for a cave as a refuge and for a tomb.[7][9] Inscriptions from Palmyra use it for a grave, and Pollux for a place behind the scenes in a theatre.[7]

Medieval Greek kept it, with the popular form Byzantine Greek σπήλιο (spílio).[10] Modern Greek σπήλαιο (spíleo) is a learned word, used in geology, beside everyday σπηλιά (spiliá).[11]

Timeline

  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato's Republic uses it for the cave of the allegory.[7][8][12]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it in his writings on animals and on meteorology.[8][12]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint Jeremiah speaks of a “den of robbers”.[7][9]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospels repeat the phrase, and the Gospel of John uses the word for a tomb; inscriptions from Palmyra use it for a grave.[7][9]
  • 2nd century AD – Pollux uses it for a place behind the stage.[7][12]
  • Middle Ages – The popular form σπήλιο (spílio) appears.[10]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek σπήλαιο (spíleo) survives as a learned and geological term.[11][13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cave, cavern or grotto.[7][14]
  2. (figurative) A den or hideout of robbers.[14][9]
  3. A tomb cut in rock.[7][9]
  4. (Septuagint, plural) The private parts.[7]
  5. A place behind the scenes in a theatre.[7]

Word family

  • σπῆλυγξ (spêlunx)

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ a b c d e 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 Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  14. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press