φυλή

Forms

φῡλή (phūlḗ) f (genitive φῡλῆς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an old derivative of the root of φῦναι (phûnai, “to grow, be born”) with an l-suffix.^[2][1] NIL reconstructs it as inherited from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuh₂-lah₂-, a feminine beside the neuter φῦλον (phûlon, “race, kind”) (*bʰuh₂-lo-), from *bʰuH- (“to be, grow”).^[3][1] Frisk compares the shift of accent and stem between φυλή and φῦλον (phûlon) with that between νευρά (neurá) and νεῦρον (neûron).^[2] The same l-formation appears in the Slavic past participle, Old Church Slavonic былъ (bylŭ, “was”), and in the place name Τριφυλία (Triphulía).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

According to Babiniotis it is first recorded in the 7th century BC, in Alcman.^[4] The Spartan Rhetra quoted by Plutarch, and Herodotus, use it for the three Dorian tribes.^[5]

Semantic evolution

A phylē was the largest subdivision of a Greek city-state; the institution belonged at first to the Ionians and Dorians and spread widely from the 8th century BC.^[6] LSJ distinguishes tribes based on supposed common descent, such as the three Dorian and the four Ionian tribes, from local tribes, such as the ten that Cleisthenes created at Athens.^[5][4] Each Athenian tribe furnished a regiment of the army, so the word also meant that contingent, in Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon.^[5][1] Dionysius of Halicarnassus applied it to the Roman tribus, and in Ptolemaic Egypt it named a division of the priests of a temple.^[5]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it names the twelve tribes of Israel, as in Matthew 19:28, and also the peoples of the earth.^[5][7][4] Modern Greek φυλή (fylí) means a race (after French and English race) and a tribe or nation.^[8]

Timeline

• 7th century BC – Alcman uses it.^[4][9]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of the Dorian and Ionian tribes, the ten Athenian tribes of Cleisthenes, and their regiments.^[5][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle and Plato discuss the tribes as units of the city.^[5][9]
• 3rd century BC – A decree from Canopus uses it for a division of Egyptian priests.^[5]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses it of the Roman tribes.^[5][9]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of the twelve tribes of Israel.^[7]
• Modern Greek – The learned φυλή (fylí) means a race or a nation.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tribe or clan: a body of people united by supposed common descent, such as the Dorian and Ionian tribes or the tribes of Israel.^[5][7]
2. A tribe as a local subdivision of a city's citizens, such as the ten tribes of Cleisthenes at Athens or the Roman tribes.^[5][6]
3. The military contingent furnished by a tribe.^[5][1]
4. A division of the priests of an Egyptian temple.^[5]
5. A people, a nation.^[7]

Word family

• φυλέτης (phulétēs)
• φυλετικός (phuletikós)
• συμφυλέτης (sumphulétēs)
• φυλοκρινέω (phulokrinéō)
• φυλώδης (phulṓdēs)

Related words

• φῦλον (phûlon)
• φύω (phúō)
• English phyle

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge