ἀλάομαι

Forms

ἀλάομαι (aláomai) ^[1] Homer has a perfect with present meaning, ἀλάλημαι, participle ἀλαλήμενος; a rarer present ἀλαίνω (alaínō) is found in tragedy.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is an old intensive verb in ⟨-άομαι⟩, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elh₂- (“to wander aimlessly”).^[2][5][3] Beekes and Chantraine compare Latvian aluôt (“to wander”).^[2][3] LIV and Beekes add Latin ambulō (“to walk”) and Umbrian amb-oltu (“must walk around”), which Chantraine thinks much further away.^[2][5][3] Wiktionary notes that it can be analysed as ἄλη (álē, “wandering”) with the suffix -άομαι (-áomai), but Chantraine holds that the verb is not a denominative.^[1][3] He relates the rare ἠλάσκω (ēláskō) to it, but not ἀλέομαι (aléomai) or ἀλύω (alúō), which Beekes cross-refers.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for wandering and roaming: in the Iliad a man wanders alone over the plain, and in the Odyssey it is said of pirates who rove the sea and of beggars.^[6][7][4]

Semantic evolution

From wandering at random it came to mean wandering as an exile or outcast, in Tyrtaeus, Empedocles, tragedy, Thucydides and the orators.^[4] With a genitive it meant to be excluded from something, and in Pindar and Euripides to wander away from joy or former good fortune.^[4][7] Sophocles uses it of a mind at a loss, uncertain what to do.^[4][7]

The verb continued in Ionic and Attic, and its derivatives ἄλη (álē) “wandering” and ἀλήτης (alḗtēs) “wanderer, vagrant” are found from the Odyssey on.^[3][2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for wandering and roaming.^[6][7]
• 7th century BC – Tyrtaeus uses it of wandering as an exile.^[4][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it with a genitive, “to miss” joy.^[7][4][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of mental perplexity, and Euripides of a mind distraught.^[4][7][8]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it of exiles.^[4][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wander, roam, travel without a fixed course.^[7][4]
2. To wander as an exile or outcast.^[4][2]
3. To be excluded from something; to miss it.^[4][7]
4. To be at a loss, perplexed.^[7][4]
5. To be distraught after misfortune.^[4]

Related words

• ἄλη (álē)
• ἀλήτης (alḗtēs)
• Latin ambulō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge