στρεβλός

Forms

στρεβλός (streblós) m (feminine στρεβλή, neuter στρεβλόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek.^[2][3] It recalls στρέφω (stréphō, “to twist, turn”), but has β where the verb has φ; a variant with a nasal, στρόμβος (strómbos, “top”), and related words with the suffixes -αλ- and -ιλ-, such as στρόβιλος (stróbilos, “top, whirlwind, fir-cone”) and Hesychius' στραβαλός (strabalós), point in his view to a Pre-Greek group.^[2][3] He thinks the connection with ἀστραβής (astrabḗs) doubtful.^[2]

Others connect it directly with the verb.^[4][5] Frisk notes that, like many words with -β-, the group has a popular, expressive character, while the primary verb has the aspirate.^[4] Babiniotis derives it from an older *στρεφλός (*streplós) with the φ voiced before λ and the suffix -λός (-lós), as in τυφλός (tuphlós).^[5] Wiktionary mentions a possible source in Proto-Indo-European *strebʰ- (“to twist”), the root also proposed for the verb.^[1]

Ancient writers derived it from having one's glances turned, and equated it with στραβός (strabós, “squinting”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest uses are in the Hippocratic treatise Airs, Waters, Places, where it means squint-eyed, and in Aristophanes, where it means twisted or bent.^[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense “twisted, crooked” was used of a branch, of a crooked ruler in Aristotle, and of the sideways gait of crabs in the Batrachomyomachia.^[7][8] Aristophanes already used it figuratively of cunning tricks in wrestling.^[7][8] In Hellenistic and later Greek the sense “wily, perverse” grew, with compounds such as στρεβλοκάρδιος (streblokárdios, “crooked-hearted”).^[10] The Septuagint uses it of a perverse person in the Psalms, and Christian writers of the “crooked” way of wrongdoing.^[7][11][12]

The verb στρεβλόω (streblóō) meant “to twist, dislocate” and so “to torture”, and στρέβλη (stréblē) named a winch, a press and the rack.^[10][4] The Modern Greek word στρεβλός (strevlós) is learned, meaning “distorted, mistaken”; in mathematics “skew” lines are στρεβλές ευθείες.^[13][14][5]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic Airs, Waters, Places uses it of squint-eyed people.^[7][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of something bent and, figuratively, of crafty wrestling holds.^[7][8]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of a crooked ruler in the Rhetoric.^[7][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander speaks of straightening a crooked branch.^[7][14]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses the derived noun στρεβλότης (streblótēs) for curvature.^[10][4]
• Modern Greek – The learned στρεβλός (strevlós) means distorted or mistaken.^[13][14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Twisted, crooked, bent.^[7][8]
2. Squint-eyed.^[7][10]
3. (figurative) Crooked, cunning, of tricks and dodges.^[7][8]
4. (Koine) Perverse, froward, of people and their ways.^[7][11][12]

Word family

• στρέβλη (stréblē)
• στρεβλότης (streblótēs)
• στρεβλόω (streblóō)
• στρέβλευμα (strébleuma)

Related words

• στραβός (strabós)
• στρόβος (stróbos)
• στρέφω (stréphō)
• στρόμβος (strómbos)
• στρόβιλος (stróbilos)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c d 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
11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ a b 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
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος