Etymologically
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ἅλλομαι

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /hál.lo.mai̯/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈal.lo.mɛ/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈal.lo.me/[1]

Forms

ᾰ̔́λλομαι (hállomai) [1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sl̥yétor, a present with the suffix *-yé- from the root *sel- (“to jump”).[1][2][3] Beekes starts from a form *hal-ye/o-, with initial /s/ becoming /h/ and /ly/ becoming /ll/.[2] Latin saliō (“to jump”) probably has the same formation;[3][2] De Vaan instead proposes a root *sh₂l- to account for the Italic and Celtic forms.[2][3] Sanskrit सरति (sárati, “to run”) is also related.[1][2] The Homeric athematic aorist continues an Indo-European root aorist.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, meaning to leap or spring: in the Iliad a goddess leaps into the sea (1.532) and warriors leap to the ground (3.29), and an arrow leaps from the string (4.125).[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is used of people leaping and dancing and of animals, fish and insects jumping.[5] Plato uses it of a breath of wind or an echo bouncing off a surface, and Theocritus of an eye that twitches.[5] In the New Testament the healed lame man leaps up and walks (Acts 3:8, 14:10), and a spring of water wells up to eternal life (John 4:14), a use that matches Latin salīre.[6]

Its derivatives include ἅλμα (hálma, “leap”) and ἁλτήρ (haltḗr), the weights athletes held in their hands while jumping.[2]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it of people leaping and of an arrow springing from the string.[4][5]
  • 5th century BC – Aeschylus and Euripides use it of dancing.[5][7]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of an echo bouncing off a surface.[5][7]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of a twitching eye.[5][7]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it of water welling up.[6][5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To leap, jump, spring, bound; to leap in dancing.[5][4]
  2. (of an arrow) To leap forward from the bowstring.[5][4]
  3. (of wind, an echo, a blade) To bounce back.[5]
  4. (of a catch in a mousetrap) To spring up.[5]
  5. (New Testament, of water) To well up, bubble up.[5][6]
  6. (of an eye) To twitch.[5]

Word family

  • ἅλμα (hálma)
  • ἅλσις (hálsis)
  • ἁλτήρ (haltḗr)
  • ἐξάλλομαι (exállomai)
  • ἐφάλλομαι (ephállomai)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  4. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  7. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge