ἄντλος

Forms

ἄντλος (ántlos) m (genitive ἄντλου); second declension^[1] Mycenaean Greek a-ta-ra.^[2][3] Pollux also has a neuter ἄντλον.^[4]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[5][3] An older explanation, Solmsen's, starts from *ἅμθλος (*hámthlos).^[5][3][6] Dissimilation of the aspirates and assimilation of the /m/ to /n/ would have given *ἅντλος (*hántlos), whose initial aspiration was lost as in Ionic.^[3][6] This links it with Latin sentīna (“bilge-water”), Lithuanian semiù (“to draw (water)”) and ἀμάομαι (amáomai).^[3][6][2]

Beekes rejects this in Indo-European terms, because *sm̥- would give ἁ-, not ἁν-, and because the Mycenaean form, if it is this word, excludes an initial /s/.^[5] Chantraine adds that Mycenaean Greek a-ta-ra is spelled with ⟨a⟩, not ⟨a₂⟩, and so had no initial aspiration.^[3] Benveniste compared Hittite ḫān- (“to draw water”), a view accepted by Puhvel and Kloekhorst and called quite convincing by Beekes, though it requires an unusual suffix.^[5][3][2] Beekes still finds the link with the Latin word tempting, but then the word would not be Indo-European, which is quite possible for a technical term.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Odyssey (12.411, 15.479) it is the hold or bilge of a ship, the floor of the hull into which things fall.^[4][7][2]

Semantic evolution

Alcaeus uses it for the bilge-water itself: ἄντλος ἰστοπέδαν ἔχει “the bilge-water reaches the foot of the mast”.^[2][7] Pindar uses it for a flood of water, and figuratively of sinking insolence in the bilge.^[4][2] Aeschylus says of a besieged city that it “let in no bilge-water”, and Euripides speaks of pumping the water out of a ship and of setting foot in the bilge, that is, getting into trouble.^[4][2]

Later it also meant a bucket (Manetho) and, in Nicander and later poets, a heap of threshed grain not yet winnowed.^[4][2] Photius glosses it with ἀντλία (antlíā).^[8] From it come ἀντλέω (antléō, “to bail out”) and ἀντλία “bilge-water”.^[4][5] Modern Greek has the learned αντλώ (antló) “to pump, draw”, and αντλία (antlía) “pump”, from ancient ἀντλία by a mistaken association with the verb.^[9][10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it for the hold of a ship.^[4][7]
• 7th–6th century BC – Alcaeus uses it for bilge-water.^[2][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for a flood of water.^[4][2]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses “setting foot in the bilge” of getting into trouble.^[4][2]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander uses it for a heap of unwinnowed grain.^[4][2]
• 4th century AD – Manetho uses it for a bucket.^[4][2]
• Modern Greek – The derivative αντλία (antlía) means a pump.^[9][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The hold or bilge of a ship.^[4][7][2]
2. Bilge-water, and (figurative) danger, trouble.^[4][7][2]
3. A surge or flood of water.^[4][7]
4. A bucket.^[4][2]
5. A heap of threshed grain not yet winnowed.^[4][2]

Word family

• ἀντλέω (antléō)
• ἀντλία (antlíā)
• ἀντλίον (antlíon)

Related words

• Modern Greek αντλία (antlía)
• Latin sentīna

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
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 o p 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 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
6. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας