φώκη

Forms

φώκη (phṓkē) f (genitive φώκης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The word is isolated.^[2][3] Beekes thinks that, as the name of a sea animal, it may well be Pre-Greek.^[2][1] Older scholars connected it with φῦσα (phûsa, “bellows, breath”), which Beekes finds makes little sense.^[2][3] The Greek Wiktionary calls its origin unknown.^[4]

Latin borrowed it as phōca.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Odyssey, which speaks of seals as the offspring of the sea goddess.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The animal meant is chiefly the Mediterranean monk seal.^[7][9][6] Herodotus tells of a people who dressed in sealskins, and Aristophanes mentions the seal in the Wasps and the Peace.^[7] Aristotle has the derivative φώκαινα (phṓkaina), a dolphin-like sea animal, probably the porpoise.^[6][3]

Medieval Greek formed a new singular from the plural, and Modern Greek has φώκια (fókia).^[10][11] Through Latin the word passed into French phoque.^[11]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey tells of seals, the “footless young” of the sea.^[7][8]
• 6th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Apollo mentions seals.^[8]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus mentions clothing made of sealskins.^[7][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it in the Wasps and the Peace.^[7][12]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus and Theocritus use it.^[9][12]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek φώκια (fókia), from the medieval plural, is the word for the seal.^[10][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A seal, especially the Mediterranean monk seal.^[7][9]

Word family

• φώκαινα (phṓkaina)

Related words

• Latin phōca
• Modern Greek φώκια (fókia)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c 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
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 Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge