φαλλός

Forms

φᾰλλός (phallós) m (genitive φᾰλλοῦ); second declension^[1] Beside it Greek has φάλης (phálēs) (also accented φαλῆς (phalês)), used by Sophron, Aristophanes and Lucian, and βαλλίον (ballíon) in Herodas.^[2][3]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because of the variation between φ and β (βαλλίον (ballíon)) and between ⟨λ⟩ and ⟨λλ⟩, and because of the suffix -ητ- of the by-form φάλης (phálēs).^[4][3] He thinks the meaning “penis” grew out of some more concrete sense that is now lost, and compares βαλλία (ballía, “private parts”) and perhaps the tribal name Τριβαλλοί (Triballoí).^[4][1] Frisk likewise calls it a popular word, shown by its vowel ⟨α⟩ and its double ⟨λλ⟩, and treats that word as a loan from Thracian, Phrygian or Illyrian.^[5]

Chantraine and others instead attach it to the large Indo-European family of words for swelling, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell”).^[2][1][6] Similar words in form and meaning are Old Irish ball (“member, limb”) and dialectal German Bille (“penis”), which have been compared with Germanic words for “ball”, “bull” and “testicle”.^[4][1] The whale, φάλλαινα (phállaina), may be named from the same word because of its shape.^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 5th century BC, in an Attic inscription and in Herodotus, for the image of an erect penis carried in processions in honour of Dionysus.^[7][2][8]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the word almost always means the ritual image, not the body part: Herodotus writes of such images in cult, and Aristophanes uses it in the Acharnians.^[7][8][2] From it come φαλλικός (phallikós) “of the phallus” (Aristophanes, Aristotle) and Phallen, a name of Dionysus.^[5] Plutarch uses it of the phallus that appeared from a hearth and fathered Romulus and Remus.^[8]

Hesychius glosses it as the wooden image of the male organ.^[9] It was borrowed as Latin phallus, the source of English phallus (1610s), first “an image of the penis”.^[10] Modern Greek φαλλός (fallós) is a learned revival: the ritual image, the penis, and in anatomy the embryonic phallus, a sense taken from English.^[11]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – An Attic inscription and Herodotus use it of the image carried in Dionysiac processions.^[7][2][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it in the Acharnians.^[7][8][12]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch tells of a phallic apparition that fathered Romulus and Remus.^[8][12]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses it in his work on the Syrian goddess.^[7][12]
• 1610s – English borrows the word through Latin as phallus.^[10]
• Modern Greek – φαλλός is kept as a learned word for the ritual image and the penis.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. An image of the erect penis carried in processions of the Dionysiac cult, a phallus.^[7][8]
2. The male member, the penis.^[7][4]

Related words

• φάλλαινα (phállaina)
• Latin phallus
• English phallus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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
3. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e 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
5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge