φλύω

Forms

φλῡ́ω (phlū́ō); aorist ἔφλῠσα; extended presents φλύζω (Nicander) and φλύσσω (Hesychius), aorist ἔφλυξα.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pʰlūō,^[1] probably inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlewH- (“to overflow”).^[1] Beekes treats it as the zero grade beside φλέω (phléō, “to overflow, teem”), whose imperfect may first have been an aorist.^[4][2] The closest outside match is Latin fluō (“to flow”).^[4][2] An extended stem with -γ- appears in φλύζω (phlúzō) and φλύκταινα (phlúktaina, “blister”).^[2] Beekes also notes that if both verbs belong with βλύζω (blúzō, “to bubble up”), the whole group could be Pre-Greek.^[4]

Beekes and Wiktionary separate a homonymous verb meaning to vomit, known from Hesychius and a compound in Archilochus, and derive it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlew- (“to vomit”), cognate with Proto-Slavic *bľuti (“to vomit”) and Lithuanian bliáuti (“to bleat, weep”).^[4][1] Wiktionary thinks it likely of the same origin as φλύω “to bubble”.^[1] Beekes finds the Slavic and Baltic link semantically uncompelling for the verb “to overflow”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Iliad (21.361), where the streams of the river boil up under Hephaestus' fire.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Aeschylus uses it figuratively, “to babble, talk idly”, and of letters on a shield that “boil over” with boasts.^[3][6] Hippocratic writers have it of bleeding that bursts out.^[3] Of plants and fruit it meant to be full of sap and to thrive: Plutarch calls this sense poetic, and Aelian explains it as “to bear much fruit”; the Attic deme Φλυή was perhaps named after this fertility.^[2][3]

The sense of idle talk lives on in φλυαρέω (phluāréō, “to talk nonsense”) and φλύαξ (phlúax).^[2][4]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of river water boiling up.^[5][3]
• 7th century BC – Archilochus has a compound ἀπέφλυσα “vomited”.^[4][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of talking idly.^[3][7]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch records its poetic sense “to be full of sap”.^[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To boil over, bubble up; to burst out.^[3][1]
2. (figurative) To overflow with words, babble.^[3][1]
3. (of plants and fruit) To be full of sap, to thrive.^[2][1]
4. To vomit (Hesychius).^[4][1]

Word family

• φλυαρέω (phluāréō)
• φλύζω (phlúzō)
• φλύος (phlúos)

Related words

• φλέω (phléō)
• φλύκταινα (phlúktaina)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge