στολή

Forms

στολή (stolḗ) f (genitive στολῆς); first declension^[1] Aeolic σπόλα (spóla).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a noun from Ancient Greek στέλλω (stéllō, “to make ready, equip; to send”), with the o-grade of the root,^[1][2][4] like στόλος (stólos) “expedition, fleet”.^[2] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to put in order”).^[2][5]

Some Aeolic glosses have initial σπ-, among them Sappho's σπόλα (spóla) for στολή, which has been taken as evidence for a root *skʷel- “to equip”, but Beekes finds the evidence for that root very slight and suggests that the Aeolic word may belong to *spel- (“to split”) instead.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Aeolic form is found in Sappho in the 7th or 6th century BC.^[2][4][6] In Attic it first appears in Aeschylus, who uses it for the equipment of an army and for clothing.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was equipment, the outfitting of an army; from equipment in clothes it came to mean garb and dress in general.^[3][4] Herodotus speaks of a horseman's outfit and a Scythian costume, and tragedy uses it for a robe or for the lion's skin of Heracles.^[3][8] In medical and Epicurean writing it also meant the checking of a motion and a reduction of food.^[3]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is especially a long flowing robe, worn by the father's son in the parable of the prodigal and by the saints in Revelation.^[9] It was borrowed as Latin stola, the robe of Roman matrons, which gave the English words stole and stola.^[10][11] Modern Greek στολή (stolí) is a learned word for a uniform.^[12]

Timeline

• 7th–6th century BC – Sappho has the Aeolic form σπόλα (spóla).^[2][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for the equipment of an army and for clothing.^[3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for the dress of a horseman and of the Scythians.^[3]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for a long robe.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The learned word στολή (stolí) names a uniform.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Equipment, the fitting out of an army; armament.^[3][8]
2. Clothing, attire, dress.^[3][8]
3. A robe or garment; in the Septuagint and the New Testament, a long flowing robe.^[3][9]
4. The act of dressing.^[3]
5. A check to motion; a reduction of food.^[3]

Word family

• στολίζω (stolízō)

Related words

• στέλλω (stéllō)
• στόλος (stólos)
• ἀποστολή (apostolḗ)
• ἐπιστολή (epistolḗ)
• Latin stola
• English stole

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b c 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. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki