ἄσυλον

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /á.syː.lon/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈa.sy.lon/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈa.sy.lon/^[1]

Forms

ᾰ̓́σῡλον (ásūlon) n (genitive ᾰ̓σῡ́λου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the neuter of the adjective ἄσυλος (ásulos, “inviolable, safe from seizure”), used as a noun.^[1][2][3] The adjective is the privative prefix with the stem of συλάω (sūláō, “to strip, plunder”) and σῦλα (sûla, “right of seizure, booty”): “what may not be seized or robbed”.^[3][4][5] Beekes and Frisk find no certain etymology for συλάω, and note its likeness to σκῦλα (skûla, “booty”).^[3][4] Pisani thought σῦλα came from Lydian, together with Latin spolia.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is older: Parmenides calls all that is “inviolate”, and a character in Euripides' Medea asks what stranger will offer a land of refuge.^[2][6] As a noun, τὸ ἄσυλον first means the right of asylum, in Cretan inscriptions of the 2nd century BC.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Hellenistic cities and temples sought recognition as asula, places where no reprisals or seizures could be made.^[2][6] Polybius speaks of a temple of Artemis held to be inviolable, and papyri forbid dragging anyone out of such places.^[2][6] The neuter then became the refuge itself: the Second Book of Maccabees tells how a man was coaxed out of the sanctuary to which he had fled.^[6][2]

Latin borrowed it as asylum, which Virgil and Livy use for the refuge that Romulus opened to fugitives.^[1][6] English took it from Latin in the early 15th century; the sense “home for the insane” came much later.^[5]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Parmenides uses the adjective ἄσυλος for what is inviolate.^[2][6]
• 5th century BC – Euripides speaks of a land that offers inviolable refuge.^[2][6]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius calls a temple of Artemis inviolable, and Cretan inscriptions use τὸ ἄσυλον for the right of asylum.^[2][6]
• 2nd–1st century BC – The Second Book of Maccabees uses it for a sanctuary where a fugitive took refuge.^[6]
• 1st century BC – Virgil and Livy use Latin asylum for Romulus' refuge.^[6]
• Early 15th century – English borrows asylum from Latin.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The right of asylum, immunity from seizure.^[6][2]
2. A sanctuary or refuge where no one may be seized.^[2][6]
3. (figurative) A retreat, a place of rest.^[6]

Related words

• ἄσυλος (ásulos)
• ἀσυλία (asulía)
• συλάω (sūláō)
• Latin asylum
• English asylum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d 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
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge