χόλος

Forms

χόλος (khólos) m (genitive χόλου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Like its twin χολή (kholḗ), it is an old o-grade noun inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃- (“green, yellow”).^[1][2] The pair resembles γονή (gonḗ) and γόνος (gónos), but no primary verb survives beside them, and they do not divide their meanings in that way.^[2]

Words for bile and for yellow colour come from the same root in several languages: Avestan zāra- (“bile”), which may match χόλος exactly, Latin fel (“gall”), Old Norse gall (“bile, poison”) and Old High German galla (“gall”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means bile only once, when Achilles is told that his mother must have fed him on gall; everywhere else it is wrath or bitter anger, of heroes and gods, and also of a lion and a snake.^[3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

Greek very early used the two forms differently: χολή (kholḗ) for the bile of medicine, χόλος for the mood, rage and resentment.^[2] Homer has many phrases for the anger seizing, entering or swelling in a man and for calming or ceasing from it.^[4][3] The word stays in poetry and Ionic prose: Hesiod, Alcaeus, Pindar, Herodotus and tragedy use it for anger, and Solon for the bitterness of strife.^[2][5][4] Apollonius of Rhodes again used it for bile, the poisonous gall of the Hydra, and Callimachus for the fierceness of a dog.^[5]

The Septuagint has it a few times for gall and bitter anger.^[6] Modern Greek keeps χόλος (chólos) as a word for anger mixed with malice and hatred.^[7][8][9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it once for gall and often for wrath.^[3][4]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of anger ceasing.^[4][10]
• 7th–6th century BC – Solon uses it for the bitterness of strife.^[5][8]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and the tragedians use it for resentment and rage.^[2][5]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it for the Hydra's gall.^[5]
• Modern Greek – χόλος (chólos) means anger mixed with malice.^[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Gall, bile.^[4][5][3]
2. Bitter anger, wrath, resentment; of animals, fierceness.^[4][5]
3. Bitterness, bitter pain.^[5][8]

Word family

• χολόω (kholóō)
• ἄχολος (ákholos)
• ὀξύχολος (oxúkholos)

Related words

• χολή (kholḗ)
• χλόη (khlóē)
• Latin fel

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
8. ^ a b c d Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux