Etymologically
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φάλαγξ

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /pʰá.laŋks/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈɸa.laŋks/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈfa.laŋks/[1]

Forms

φᾰ́λᾰγξ (phálanx) f (genitive φᾰ́λᾰγγος); third declension[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek: it is formed like φάραγξ (pháranx), σῆραγξ (sêranx) and φάρυγξ (phárunx), and the prenasalized suffix -αγγ- proves a Pre-Greek origin.[2][3][1] PHILOGLOSSA rates this judgement as very reliable.[4]

The older comparison with Germanic words for “beam”, Old Norse bjalki and Old High German balko, and with Balto-Slavic words for planks and crossbeams, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, plank”), is made obsolete by the nasal and by the constant vowels -αλα-.[2][1] Frisk had to assume that the nasal was secondary.[2][5][1]

It was borrowed as Latin phalanx and phalanga, whence Late Latin planca and German Planke “plank”.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it only in the Iliad: once in the singular, “he broke the phalanx of the Trojans”, and otherwise in the plural, the lines or ranks of battle.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod and Tyrtaeus also use it for the ranks of troops.[8] The concrete senses appear later: a log or round piece of wood (Herodotus, a Delian inscription), rollers for launching a ship (Apollonius), a balance beam and a joint of the fingers (Aristotle), a row of eyelashes (Paul of Aegina), and a spider, named after the long joints of its legs (comedy, Xenophon).[2][8][5]

From Xenophon on it is the body of heavy infantry drawn up in close order, opposed to light troops, to cavalry and to the marching column, and later above all the Macedonian phalanx (Polybius).[6][8][2] The Suda tells how the consul Lucius, who had fought many battles, admitted that he had never seen anything more frightening than a Macedonian phalanx.[9] In the Septuagint it appears only in 1 Maccabees.[10]

It continues as Modern Greek φάλαγγα (fálanga).[1] English phalanx, first a line of battle (1550s), was used in anatomy for the row of finger joints, which fit together like infantry in close order.[11]

Timeline

  • Homer – the lines of battle in the Iliad.[6][7]
  • 7th century BC – Tyrtaeus uses it for ranks of troops.[8][12]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a log.[2][8][12]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it for heavy infantry in close order, and for a spider.[6][8][12]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a balance beam and a finger joint.[2][12]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius describes the Macedonian phalanx.[8][2][12]
  • 1550s – English phalanx.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (plural and collective) Rows or ranks of troops; the line of battle.[8][6]
  2. A body of heavy infantry in close order, the phalanx; a close formation of troops or ships.[8][6]
  3. The ground occupied by troops, the lines.[8]
  4. A log or block of wood, a spar, and (plural) rollers for launching a ship.[8][2]
  5. The beam of a balance.[2][1]
  6. (anatomy) A bone of a finger or toe.[2][1]
  7. A row of eyelashes.[2][1]
  8. A spider.[8][2][13]

Word family

  • φαλαγγηδόν (phalangēdón)
  • φαλάγγιον (phalángion)
  • φαλαγγομαχέω (phalangomakhéō)
  • φαλαγγίτης (phalangī́tēs)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0
  5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  6. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner
  10. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)