σύμβολος

Forms

σύμβολος (súmbolos), adjective of two endings (masculine and feminine σύμβολος, neuter σύμβολον); as a noun masculine, genitive συμβόλου; second declension.^[1][2] Attic also ξύμβολος (xúmbolos).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a derivative from Ancient Greek συμβάλλω (sumbállō, “to throw together; to meet”),^[4][3][5][6] made like the other compounds in -βολος (-bolos), from βόλος (bólos, “a throw”) and βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), such as παράβολος (parábolos).^[7] The CGL relates it to συμβολέω (sumboléō, “to meet with”) and to σύμβολον (súmbolon),^[2] and the noun has the same sense as one meaning of the neuter, “an omen”.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aeschylus, both as an adjective, “met by chance”, and as a masculine noun for a chance meeting on the road read as an omen.^[1][2][9]

Semantic evolution

The noun belongs to the language of divination: a person or animal met on the way was taken as a sign of what was to come, and Aeschylus speaks of such “wayside” encounters among the omens that men learned to interpret.^[1][2][3] The word is understood with οἰωνός (oiōnós, “bird of omen”), and Hesychius glosses it simply with that word;^[1][10] in Aristophanes a “meeting bird” is one of the kinds of omen that people call birds.^[1][2] According to Hesychius, Sophocles used the plural for divinations drawn from chance utterances.^[11]

Xenophon still uses the noun in prose, and LSJ cites it as late as Marinus' life of Proclus.^[1][2] The neuter σύμβολον (súmbolon) took a separate path as a token or sign, and it is that word, not this one, that Latin borrowed as symbolum.^[12][1]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it as an adjective, “met by chance”, and as a noun for omens met on the road.^[1][2][13]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it, according to Hesychius, for omens drawn from chance words.^[11][13]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Xenophon use the noun for an omen.^[1][2][13]
• 4th century BC – An inscription from Epidaurus has the word in an unclear sense.^[1]
• 5th–6th century AD – Marinus still uses the noun for an omen.^[1][13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Meeting by chance, met with on the way.^[1][3][14]

Noun

1. A chance encounter with a person or animal, taken as a portent; an omen, augury.^[1][2][14]

Related words

• σύμβολον (súmbolon)
• συμβάλλω (sumbállō)
• συμβολέω (sumboléō)
• βάλλω (bállō)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d Woordenboek Grieks/Nederlands (2012–), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, https://woordenboekgrieks.nl
4. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
11. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
12. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
14. ^ a b Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli