σφάλλω

Forms

σφᾰ́λλω (sphállō); future σφαλῶ, aorist ἔσφηλα (epic σφῆλα, Doric ἔσφᾱλα), perfect ἔσφαλκα; passive aorist ἐσφάλην, perfect ἔσφαλμαι.^[2][3] An intransitive aorist ἔσφαλα “stumbled” is found in the Septuagint.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- (“to stumble”), with a present in *-ye/o- of the Greek type, like πάλλω (pállō) and σκάλλω (skállō).^[3][5][4] It is traditionally compared with Sanskrit स्खलति (skhálati, “stumbles, errs”) and Old Armenian սխալեմ (sxalem, “to stumble, err”).^[3][1] Rix and LIV reconstruct the root with an s-mobile whose aspiration is due to Siebs' law, which Beekes finds a good possibility.^[3][5][1] Wiktionary and LIV add Latin fallō (“to deceive”) as a possible cognate, which Chantraine rejects.^[1][5][4]

Chantraine suggests that it may be a denominative of σφαλός (sphalós), if that noun is old, and that the family belonged to the language of wrestling, “to make someone trip”.^[4] Babiniotis glosses the noun as a wooden block with holes used as a fetter.^[4][6] Wahrmann's link with Proto-Indo-European *sp(h)el- (“to split”) and σπολάς (spolás) is rejected by Beekes, as the initial clusters do not match.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has only the active aorist, in the sense “to make reel or fall”: in the wrestling of Iliad 23.719 it is to throw a man to the ground, and in the Odyssey (17.464) Antinous' missile does not make its target reel.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

From throwing a wrestler or unseating a rider it came to mean to bring down, ruin or overthrow people, houses and cities (Pindar, Herodotus, Sophocles, Thucydides), and to trip up or mislead someone, of gods and oracles.^[2][8] The passive means to stagger or stumble, to be ruined, to be proved wrong, and to fail.^[2] Chantraine contrasts it with ἁμαρτάνω (hamartánō, “to miss the mark, err”): the image of σφάλλω is a fall, a man who trips over an obstacle.^[4] Sophocles says that small words have often brought men down and set them up again.^[4]

From it come σφάλμα (sphálma, “fall, mistake”) and the negative ἀσφαλής (asphalḗs, “not falling, safe”).^[3] It survives in Modern Greek σφάλλω (sfállo), a learned word meaning “to err”.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of throwing a man down or knocking him over.^[7][2]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of bringing down a warrior.^[2][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus, Sophocles and Thucydides use it of ruining people and cities, and its passive of being mistaken.^[2][10]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius has the active perfect ἔσφαλκα.^[3][10]
• Modern Greek – σφάλλω is a learned word meaning to make a mistake.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make totter or fall; in wrestling, to throw an opponent; of a horse, to unseat its rider.^[2][8]
2. To bring down, ruin (persons, houses, cities); to overthrow.^[2][8]
3. To trip up, mislead or frustrate someone.^[2][1]
4. (passive) To stagger or stumble.^[2][1]
5. (passive) To be ruined; to be mistaken; to fail; with a genitive, to be cheated of something.^[2][8]

Word family

• ἀσφαλής (asphalḗs)
• σφαλερός (sphalerós)
• σφάλμα (sphálma)
• σφαλίζω (sphalízō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge