Etymologically
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ἕλκω

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Pronunciation

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

Forms

ἕλκω (hélkō) [1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to pull, draw”).[2][1][3] The cognate verb is Tocharian B sälkā- (“to draw out”); nominal formations are Old Armenian հեղգ (hełg, “slow”), Latin sulcus (“furrow”) and Old English sulh (“plough”).[2][1] Albanian heq (“to draw”) may continue an old iterative Proto-Indo-European *solk-éi̯e-.[2]

The DGE also mentions Lithuanian velkù and Old Church Slavonic vlěko (vlěšti), from a variant *su̯elk-, though Greek shows no trace of ϝ.[4] The verb is not related to ἄλοξ (álox) or to ἕλκος (hélkos, “wound”).[2][1] Within Greek, ὁλκός (holkós) belongs with it.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to draw or drag: a corpse behind a chariot, a ship to the sea, a sword from its sheath, a bow, and the sails up the mast.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

From Homer on the verb covers much of English “pull”: horses and oxen draw a chariot or a plough, the setting sun draws night after it, and scales are lifted up to weigh.[5][6] After Homer it is used for towing a ship, dragging someone into court, and treating someone with violence.[5]

Herodotus uses it of the sun drawing up water, of drawing out excuses and of a war dragging on, and of an offering that weighs ten talents, “draws down” the balance.[5] It also means to attract: Euripides uses it of the magnet, Theocritus of a love spell, and Plato of what draws people towards pleasure or philosophy.[5] In the New Testament it is used of drawing a sword and hauling a net.[7]

The word was borrowed in Latin helcium and helciarius.[8] Modern Greek έλκω (élko) is a learned word meaning to pull, tow or attract.[9][10]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for dragging, drawing a sword or bow, and hoisting sails.[5][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of oxen drawing the plough.[6][4]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for drawing up water, for weighing and for a war dragging on.[5][4]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of the magnet's attraction.[5][4]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of being drawn towards pleasure or philosophy.[5][4]
  • New Testament – The New Testament uses it for drawing a sword and hauling a net.[7]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as a learned verb, “to pull, attract”.[9][10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To draw, drag, haul a person, a corpse, a ship; passive, to be dragged.[5][6][7]
  2. Of draught animals: to draw a chariot, wagon or plough.[6]
  3. To draw a bow or a sword; to hoist sails; to raise scales.[5]
  4. To tear, of nails or dogs.[5]
  5. To tow a ship; to drag into court; to maltreat.[5]
  6. To draw up or in, of water and air; to breathe.[5]
  7. To drag out a life; to protract; intransitive, to drag on.[5]
  8. To attract, of a magnet or a spell; to draw on, towards pleasure.[5]
  9. Of things weighed: to weigh so much.[5]
  10. To derive from a source.[5]
  • ὁλκός (holkós)
  • Latin sulcus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  4. ^ a b c d e 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 l m n o p q r Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  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