ἅλως

Forms

ᾰ̔́λως (hálōs) f (genitive ᾰ̔́λω); second declension^[1] Genitive also ἅλωος; a later stem in -ν- gives the genitive ἅλωνος and a rare new nominative ἅλων, which is the usual form in the Septuagint and the New Testament.^[2][3][4] It is a by-form of epic ἀλωή (alōḗ).^[2][5] Cypriot has the gloss ἄλουα (áloua) “gardens” (Hesychius), and Sicilian Doric a thematic ἄλος (álos) “garden”.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is a by-form, used in Attic, from Ancient Greek ἀλωή (alōḗ, “threshing floor, garden”), and the origin of the word is unknown.^[2][5][3] Beekes thinks the epic word may come from an earlier *ἀλωϝη (*alōwē), and that ἅλως and the Cypriot forms might continue a hysterodynamic noun of the type of πάτρως (pátrōs), with stems in *-ōu- and *-u-; if Swedish lō “threshing floor” is cognate, the root could be Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-.^[2] Schwyzer derived it from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to wind”), with an original meaning “round thing”, but Beekes, Chantraine and Frisk object that this cannot explain the Cypriot forms without initial /w/ or the meaning “garden”.^[2][5][3]

Beekes supposes that the word first named a small plot near the farm, used both as a garden and for threshing; from the circular threshing floor the meaning passed to “disk” and then to “halo”.^[2] The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from the gathering of the ears of grain, or from ἀλοάω (aloáō, “to thresh”), and Zonaras from the threshing of the ears; these are ancient guesses.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first text with the Attic form is Aeschylus' Seven against Thebes, where it is the round disk of a shield.^[8][9][10] The epic form ἀλωή is already Homeric, both as a threshing floor and as a garden or orchard.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In classical prose the word is the threshing floor, in Hippocratic writing, Xenophon and Demosthenes, and in the papyri also the grain lying on it.^[8][9] From the round shape of the floor came the meanings “disk of the sun or moon” and later, in Aristotle's Meteorologica, the halo, the ring of light around the sun or moon; later writers also applied it to a serpent's coil and a bird's nest.^[8][2] In Arcadia the old meaning “garden” survived.^[5]

The Septuagint uses it, beside the newer form ἅλων, for the threshing floor of the Hebrew Bible.^[11][4] Hesychius glosses it as the circle of the sun or moon and, citing Aeschylus, the rim of a shield.^[10]

Modern Greek άλως (álos) is a learned word, kept only in the sense “halo”.^[12][13] Latin borrowed the word as Latin halos, the source of English halo (1560s), whose sense of the light around a holy person's head is recorded from the 1640s.^[14]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus calls the round disk of a shield by this name.^[8][9][15]
• 5th–4th century BC – Hippocratic writing and Xenophon use it for the threshing floor.^[8][15]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle's Meteorologica uses it for the halo around the sun or moon.^[8][15]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander applies it to a serpent's coil.^[8][15]
• 2nd century AD – A papyrus uses it for the grain on the threshing floor.^[8]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Aelian uses it for a bird's nest.^[8][15]
• 1560s – English borrows it, through Latin, as halo.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A threshing floor.^[8][9]
2. The grain on the threshing floor.^[8]
3. A round disk: of the sun or moon, or of a shield.^[8][9]
4. A halo around the sun or moon.^[8][16]
5. A serpent's coil.^[8]
6. A bird's nest.^[8]
7. (Arcadian) A garden.^[5]

Word family

• ἁλωεύς (halōeús)
• ἁλωνία (halōnía)
• ἁλώνιον (halṓnion)
• ἀλοάω (aloáō)

Related words

• ἀλωή (alōḗ)
• Latin halos
• English halo

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
11. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
16. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.