χάλιξ

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /kʰá.liks/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈxa.liks/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈxa.liks/^[1]

Forms

χᾰ́λῐξ (khálix) m or f (genitive χᾰ́λῐκος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] Beekes finds the likeness to Latin silex (“flint”) and Middle Irish scellec (“rock”) too vague for an Indo-European etymology; the formation is like κύλιξ (kúlix, “cup”).^[2] It is probably a loanword: Furnée connects Latin calx (“limestone”) and a Sumerian word for limestone, but Chantraine doubts the eastern words.^[2][3] Beekes thinks a Pre-Greek origin possible.^[2] Latin calx is usually held to be a borrowing from Greek, though Ernout and Meillet allowed that both may come independently from an unknown Mediterranean language.^[3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thucydides uses it for the rubble built into the Athenian walls.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In the singular it is a collective noun for gravel or rubble used in building, and Strabo uses it of the gravel mixed with sand into concrete.^[5][6] In the plural Aristotle and Lucian use it for pebbles.^[5] Papyri of the 3rd century BC use it for building rubble.^[5] The Septuagint and the Apocalypse of Peter use it for small sharp stones.^[7][8]

It survives through the medieval diminutive χαλίκι (chalíki), from an unattested *χαλίκιον (*khalíkion), as Modern Greek χαλίκι (chalíki, “pebble, gravel”).^[9][10]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for the rubble in the walls of Athens.^[5][6][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses the plural.^[5][11]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the plural for pebbles.^[5][11]
• 1st century BC – 1st century AD – Strabo describes gravel mixed with sand to make concrete.^[5][11]
• Modern Greek – It survives through the diminutive Modern Greek χαλίκι (chalíki).^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (collective) Gravel, rubble used in building.^[6][5][2]
2. A small stone, a pebble.^[5][7]
3. Mortar for stone building.^[2]

Word family

• χαλικῖτις (khalikîtis)
• χαλικοκαύστης (khalikokaústēs)

Related words

• Latin calx

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 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
4. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b 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. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
11. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge