ὁλκάς

Forms

ὁλκάς (holkás) f (genitive ὁλκάδος); third declension^[1] Late poets also write it with a smooth breathing, ὀλκάς.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek ὁλκή (holkḗ, “dragging, towing”), with the suffix -άς (-ás): the word first named a ship that was towed.^[3][4][5][1] That noun is one of the regular verbal nouns with the o-grade of ἕλκω (hélkō, “to draw, drag”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw”).^[3]

The same root is found in Latin sulcus (“furrow”) and Old English sulh (“plough, furrow”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Pindar, who bids his song set out from Aegina “on every merchant ship and in every boat”.^[6][5][7]

Semantic evolution

Pape explains the name by the heavy cargo ships that were towed, but in use the word means any merchantman as opposed to a warship.^[2][5] Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Lysias use it for trading vessels, and Thucydides speaks of grain transports, Pherecrates of wine ships.^[5][8] A 3rd-century BC inscription from Delos uses it in connection with stones hauled to a building site.^[5][9]

Poets used it figuratively: an epigram of the Greek Anthology applies it to women, and Nonnus to the bull that carried Europa.^[5] In Byzantine Greek Psellus uses it for a precious stone.^[9][1] Medieval vernacular texts keep it for a kind of ship, in one passage a warship.^[10] It was borrowed as Latin holcas, whence English holcad.^[1]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it of merchant ships.^[6][5][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for trading vessels and grain transports.^[5][8][11]
• 3rd century BC – An inscription from Delos uses it in connection with stones hauled to a building site.^[5][9]
• 4th–5th century AD – Nonnus applies it figuratively to the bull that carried Europa.^[5][11]
• Byzantine period – Psellus uses it for a kind of precious stone.^[9][1]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it for a kind of ship.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A merchantman, cargo ship, trading vessel; originally a ship that was towed.^[5][8][12]
2. (figurative) Something that carries a load: of women, and of Europa's bull.^[5]
3. (Byzantine) A kind of gemstone.^[9][1]

Word family

• ὁλκαδικός (holkadikós)

Related words

• ἕλκω (hélkō)
• ὁλκή (holkḗ)
• ὁλκός (holkós)
• Latin holcas
• English holcad

Usage notes

Hesychius records that Alcman used holkás in a phrase about the song of the Sirens, and the lexicon of Cyril explains the word there as the nightingale.^[13][5][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
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. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)