ἕλος

Forms

ἕλος (hélos) n (genitive ἕλεος or ἕλους); third declension^[1] Mycenaean e-re-e, Cypriot syllabic e-le-i (dative).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *hélos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *sélos (“marsh”), an inherited word identical with Sanskrit सरस् (sáras, “pond”).^[3][1] The adjective ἕλειος (héleios) matches a Sanskrit adjective in the same way.^[3] The DGE takes the root to be the one found in river names, as in the Sanskrit river name Sarasvatī.^[2]

It is not related to Latin silva (“forest”) or to ὕλη (hū́lē).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets have a form e-re-e, according to the DGE.^[2] In Homer it is a wet meadow by a river where horses graze, as in the Iliad (4.483 and 20.221).^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In the Odyssey it already means marshy ground with reeds, and this is the usual sense in Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Plato: a marsh or swamp.^[5][7] Theophrastus speaks of plants that grow in marshes, and in Apollonius of Rhodes it is a shady backwater.^[2][5] In the Septuagint it is used of the marshy bank of the Jordan.^[2]

Medieval Greek kept the word.^[8] It survives as Modern Greek έλος (élos), a learned word for a marsh, with derivatives such as Modern Greek ελώδης (elódis).^[9][4]

Timeline

• 14th–13th century BC – The Mycenaean tablets have the form Mycenaean Greek e-re-e.^[2]
• Homer – The Iliad uses it of a wet meadow where horses graze, and the Odyssey of reedy marshland.^[5][2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it of marshes.^[5][7][2]
• 3rd century BC – Apollonius of Rhodes uses it of a shady backwater.^[5][2]
• 2nd century BC – The First Book of Maccabees uses it of the marshy bank of the Jordan.^[2]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as a learned term for a marsh.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wet meadow, low ground by a river.^[5][2]
2. A marsh, swamp, marshy ground.^[5][7]
3. A backwater; the marshy bank of a river.^[5][2]

Word family

• ἑλειοβάτης (heleiobátēs)
• ἑλειονόμος (heleionómos)
• ἕλειος (héleios)
• ἑλεόθρεπτος (heleóthreptos)
• ἑλώδης (helṓdēs)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki