Etymologically
Log in

ἄλγος

This is an old revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 03:34. It may differ significantly from the current version. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Current version Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ál.ɡos/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈal.ɣos/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈal.ɣos/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓́λγος (álgos) n (genitive ἄλγους); third declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.[2][3] It is usually connected with ἀλέγω (alégō, “to care, heed”), and so perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leg- (“to care”);[1][4] a change from “care, worry” to “grief” has parallels such as English sorrow beside Dutch zorgen (“to take care”).[2][3] Szemerényi defended the connection,[2] but Beekes, in the Leiden version of his dictionary, judges the meanings too different and leaves ἄλγος without an etymology.[2] Πάπυρος reports the view that ἄλγος and ἀλέγω are unrelated and only influenced each other, as in compounds in -ηλεγής (-ēlegḗs).[5] The DGE instead starts from a root *h₂elg- and compares Old High German ilki (“hunger”).[6]

The adjective ἀργαλέος (argaléos, “painful”) is dissimilated from *ἀλγαλέος.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, mostly in epic and poetry.[2][4] In Homer it is mostly plural, “woes, hardships”: the wrath of Achilles “laid countless woes on the Achaeans”, and Odysseus suffered many griefs at sea.[7][8][6] Once in the Iliad it is clearly bodily pain, that of a wounded god.[7]

Semantic evolution

In Archaic and Classical poetry it is pain of body and, more often, of mind.[8][9] Hesiod personifies the Pains as children of Strife;[6][9] Solon warns that “from a little ache comes great pain”.[6] Sophocles uses it of Philoctetes' festering wound, and the tragedians often of grief.[8][9] In prose it appears in medical writers and Xenophon for pain in a part of the body, such as the heart or the feet, and on an inscription from Epidaurus for a headache.[8][6]

In Hellenistic poetry it came to mean the cause of grief: Theocritus' Daphnis will be “a grief to Love”.[6][9] The Septuagint uses it for the pain of wounds and the grief of the heart.[10][6]

Modern Greek has άλγος (álgos) as a learned word, mainly for mental pain.[11][12] English -algia comes from it.[13]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it, mostly in the plural, for sufferings.[7][8]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony personifies the Pains.[6][9]
  • 7th–6th century BC – Solon contrasts a little ache with great pain.[6]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for the pain of Philoctetes' wound.[8][6]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of a person who causes grief.[6][9]
  • Modern Greek – άλγος survives as a learned word.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Bodily pain.[8][9]
  2. A physical ailment, suffering.[9]
  3. Pain of mind, grief, distress.[8][9]
  4. (plural) Sufferings, hardships, woes.[9][7]
  5. (plural, personified) the Pains.[9][6]
  6. Something or someone that causes grief.[9][8]

Word family

  • ἀλγεινός (algeinós)
  • ἀλγέω (algéō)
  • ἀλγηδών (algēdṓn)
  • ἄλγημα (álgēma)
  • ἄλγησις (álgēsis)
  • ἀναλγής (analgḗs)
  • ἀναλγησία (analgēsíā)
  • ἀνάλγητος (análgētos)
  • ἀργαλέος (argaléos)

Usage notes

Ancient writers already derived ἄλγος from ἀλέγω (alégō), explaining pain as “that about which one cares”.[12]

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 Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
  4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  7. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  10. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com