ἕλκος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /hél.kos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈel.kos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈel.kos/^[1]

Forms

ἕλκος (hélkos) n (genitive ἕλκεος or ἕλκους); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁élḱos (“wound, ulcer”), an old neuter noun.^[2][1] It matches Latin ulcus (“ulcer”) exactly, and Sanskrit अर्शस् (árśas, “haemorrhoids”).^[2][3][4] The rough breathing, which does not belong to the root, is usually put down to the influence of ἕλκω (hélkō, “to drag”).^[2][1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it means a wound from a weapon, and the festering bite of a water snake; the word is not in the Odyssey.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

From the sense “wound” came that of a festering sore or ulcer, as in Thucydides' plague.^[5][7] Galen defines it as a break of continuity in a fleshy part, and the Hippocratic treatise On Ulcers covers both wounds and sores.^[5] From Solon and the tragedians on it also means a figurative wound, a loss or blow.^[5][7]

The Septuagint uses it of the boils in Exodus and of sores in Leviticus.^[8] In the New Testament it is the sores of the beggar in Luke and the foul sores of Revelation.^[9] Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word.^[10] Today Modern Greek έλκος (élkos) is a learned word for an ulcer, with the sense of French ulcère.^[11][12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of wounds and of a snake's bite.^[5][6]
• 7th–6th century BC – Solon uses it of a figurative wound.^[5][4]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of the ulcers of the plague.^[5][7][4]
• 1st century AD – The Gospel of Luke uses it of the sores of a beggar.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The learned word έλκος means an ulcer.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wound, from a weapon or a snake's bite.^[5][7]
2. A festering wound, sore, ulcer.^[5][7][9]
3. (figurative) A blow, affliction or loss.^[5][7]

Word family

• ἑλκαίνω (helkaínō)
• ἑλκοποιέω (helkopoiéō)
• ἑλκοποιός (helkopoiós)
• ἑλκόω (helkóō)
• ἑλκύδριον (helkúdrion)
• ἑλκώδης (helkṓdēs)
• ἕλκωσις (hélkōsis)
• ἀνελκής (anelkḗs)
• ἀνελκόομαι (anelkóomai)
• ἀφελκόω (aphelkóō)
• ἐξελκόω (exelkóō)
• ἐξέλκωσις (exélkōsis)
• ἐφέλκωσις (ephélkōsis)
• καθελκόομαι (kathelkóomai)

Related words

• Latin ulcus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
4. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας