Etymologically
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στλεγγίς

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /stleŋ.ɡís/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /stleɲˈɟis/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /stleɲˈɟis/[1]

Forms

στλεγγῐ́ς (stlengís) f (genitive στλεγγῐ́δος); third declension[1] Variants στελγίς, στεγγίς, στελεγγίς, στλιγγίς, στρεγγίς, στεργίς and στλαγγίς.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a technical term without an etymology, very probably borrowed from an unknown source.[2][4][5] Neumann compared Hittite ištalk- (“to level, smooth”), an Anatolian connection that Chantraine records.[2][4] The many variants, including στλαγγίς (stlangís) with ⟨α⟩, may point to a Pre-Greek substrate origin.[2][1] Babiniotis notes that it is the only Greek word beginning with ⟨στλ⟩.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the late 5th century BC, in Aristophanes, Plato and the Hippocratic writers, for the scraper used in the bath and the gymnasium.[3][5][7]

Semantic evolution

The στλεγγίς was the strigil, with which one scraped oil, sweat and dust from the skin after exercise; it was usually of metal, though the Spartans used reeds.[3][5] With the oil flask it was a typical object of everyday life, and Aristophanes jokes about women drawing wine with their strigils.[3] Erotian says that it is the older word for ξύστρα (xústra).[3]

Metaphorically the word also named a kind of tiara overlaid with metal: Xenophon has golden ones offered as prizes, and Polybius and inscriptions from Athens, Delos and Andania mention them.[3][5][2] The spelling varies widely: στελγίς, στεγγίς, στελεγγίς, στρεγγίς and others.[2][3]

Modern Greek uses στλεγγίδα (stlengída) as a learned word for a scraper and for the ancient strigil.[8][6]

Timeline

  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Plato name the strigil, and Hippocratic writers use it.[3][5][9]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon names golden tiaras of this name as prizes.[3][5][9]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the form στελγίς for a tiara.[3][9]
  • 1st century BC – An inscription from Andania mentions the tiara.[3]
  • Modern Greek – στλεγγίδα (stlengída) is a learned word for a scraper and the ancient strigil.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A scraper or strigil, used to remove oil and dirt from the skin in the bath or after exercise.[3][5]
  2. A curry-comb.[2][6]
  3. A kind of tiara overlaid with metal, sometimes of gold.[3][5]

Word family

  • ἀστλέγγιστος (astléngistos)
  • περιστλεγγίζω (peristlengízō)
  • στλεγγίδιον (stlengídion)
  • ξύστρα (xústra)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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 c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge