Etymologically
Log in

στρόφος

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Ancient Greek word στρόφος

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
700s BC Homer, Odyssey More words from the 8th century BC
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek στρέφω
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek στρέφω (stréphō)
Ancient Greek στρόφος (stróphos)
Latin struppus
From the same root
Ancient Greek ἀποστρέφω (apostréphō) ← στρέφω
Ancient Greek ἐπιστρέφω (epistréphō) ← στρέφω
Ancient Greek στροφή (strophḗ) ← στρέφω
English apostrophe ← στρέφω
English strop ← struppus

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /stró.pʰos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈstro.ɸos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈstro.fos/[1]

Forms

στρόφος (stróphos) m (genitive στρόφου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek στρέφω (stréphō, “to twist, turn”) + -ος (-os), with the o-grade of the root, ο in place of the verb's ε.[1][2] It is thus “something twisted”, a cord or band.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey it is the cord on Odysseus' beggar's wallet, by which he hangs it from his shoulder.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From a twisted cord the word passed to other bands: a woman's girdle in Aeschylus and the swaddling bands of the newborn god in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo.[4][3] Herodotus and Attic inscriptions use it for a rope.[4] Hesychius glosses it as a twisted thong or a rope.[6]

From Aristophanes and the Hippocratic writers on it also meant a painful twisting of the bowels, colic, a sense the medical writers kept down to Soranus and Galen.[4][3] Latin took the word over as struppus.[7] Medieval and Modern Greek keep στρόφος (strófos) for a severe colic, and Modern Greek also uses it for a kind of rope with its ends tied together.[2]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey uses it for the cord of a beggar's wallet.[5][4]
  • 6th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Apollo uses it for the swaddling bands of the newborn god.[4][8]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for a woman's girdle.[4][3]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a rope, and the Hippocratic writings for colic.[4][3]
  • 5th–4th century BC – A character in Aristophanes complains that colic grips his belly.[4][3]
  • 2nd century AD – Galen still uses it for colic.[4]
  • Modern Greek – στρόφος (strófos) means a severe colic and a kind of rope.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A twisted band or cord; a rope.[4][3][5]
  2. A woman's girdle or breast-band.[4][3]
  3. A swaddling band.[4]
  4. (medicine) A twisting of the bowels, colic.[4][3]

Word family

  • στρόφιον (stróphion)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  6. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
  7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
Cite this entry

“Στρόφος.” Etymologically, 8 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/grc/%CF%83%CF%84%CF%81%CF%8C%CF%86%CE%BF%CF%82. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·