συλλαβή

Forms

σῠλλᾰβή (sullabḗ) f (genitive σῠλλᾰβῆς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek συλλαμβάνω (sullambánō, “to gather together, to grasp”),^[2][3][4] a compound of σύν (sún, “with, together”) and λαμβάνω (lambánō, “to take”).^[1] Its first sense was “that which holds two parts together”, as a girdle holds a robe; from this it came to mean a group of sounds held together, a syllable.^[5][6]

The second part goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sleh₂gʷ- (“to take, grasp”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aeschylus has both early senses: in the Suppliants the “fastenings of robes”, that is, girdles, and in the Seven against Thebes something that “cries out in syllables of letters”.^[6][2][8]

Semantic evolution

The grammatical sense became the usual one: Plato discusses syllables and letters in the Theaetetus, Aristotle classes syllables as long or short, and Demosthenes uses “the same syllables” for a verbatim copy of a text.^[6][2] Other uses grew from the verb's other senses: Menander used it for conception and pregnancy, and later writers for a grip in wrestling or a grasp of the mind.^[6] In music it named the interval of the fourth (Philolaus, papyri), and in arithmetic a sum of numbers.^[6][9]

In late Greek the plural meant the letters of the alphabet and, like Latin litterae, a letter or document.^[6][9] The word was borrowed as Latin syllaba^[10] and into Coptic, where it is recorded from about AD 900.^[11] It survives in Modern Greek as a learned word, συλλαβή (syllaví), “syllable”.^[12][5]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of the fastenings of a robe and of syllables in writing.^[6][2]
• 5th century BC – Philolaus uses it in music for the interval of the fourth.^[6]
• 4th century BC – Plato and Aristotle use it for the syllable, and Aristotle speaks of long and short syllables.^[6][2]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander uses it for conception.^[6]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses the plural for the letters of the alphabet.^[6]
• About AD 900 – The Coptic loanword is first recorded.^[11]
• Modern Greek – It continues as a learned word for “syllable”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. That which holds something together, a fastening; of robes, a girdle.^[6][2]
2. A syllable: letters or sounds taken together and pronounced as one.^[6][2][13]
3. Conception, pregnancy.^[6]
4. A grip or hold in wrestling; figuratively, mental grasp.^[6]
5. (music) The fourth (the interval).^[6]
6. (arithmetic) The sum of two or more numbers.^[6]
7. (late, in the plural) The letters of the alphabet; a letter or written message.^[6]

Word family

• δισύλλαβος (disúllabos)
• μονοσύλλαβος (monosúllabos)
• ὀλιγοσύλλαβος (oligosúllabos)
• πεντασύλλαβος (pentasúllabos)
• τετρασύλλαβος (tetrasúllabos)

Related words

• Latin syllaba

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
4. ^ Malhadas, Daisi; Dezotti, Maria Celeste C.; Neves, Maria Helena de Moura, eds. (2006–2010), Dicionário Grego-Português, São Paulo: Ateliê; digital ed. 3 (2022), UNESP Araraquara
5. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
11. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ 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