ὑλάω

Forms

ὑλάω (huláō), contracted verb, used only in the present and imperfect: Homeric imperfect ὕλαον, middle imperfect ὑλάοντο.^[1][2][3]

Etymology

It is probably an imitation of the sound of howling or barking.^[1][4][5][6] Beekes compares Latin ululō (“to howl”), ulula (“owl”) and Lithuanian ulúoti (“to howl”), and Greek ὀλολύζω (ololū́zō).^[1][7] For the ending -άω he compares verbs of crying such as βοάω (boáō, “to shout”) and γοάω (goáō, “to wail”).^[1]

The more usual verb ὑλακτέω (hulaktéō) adds a suffix -κτ-, which Frisk calls expressive,^[8] while Beekes thinks it may be a Pre-Greek suffix, and that the whole word may be Pre-Greek.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Odyssey uses it of dogs: dogs that do not bark at a man coming towards them but fawn on him, and a dog that barks at a man it does not know (κύων… ἄνδρ’ ἀγνοιήσασ’ ὑλάει, Odyssey 20.15).^[9][3][2]

Semantic evolution

It remained a poetic verb, found only in the present and imperfect.^[3][1] Theocritus has dogs barking loudly, and later poets use it transitively, “to bark at someone”.^[3][6] Applied to people it means to howl in vain: a conjecture puts it in a fragment of Sophocles, and Tryphiodorus uses it of Cassandra.^[3][1][10]

Prose and everyday Greek used ὑλακτέω (hulaktéō) instead, from the Iliad on, with the nouns ὑλακή (hulakḗ) and ὑλαγμός (hulagmós) “barking”.^[1][10] In the vernacular Greek of later times “to bark” is Modern Greek γαυγίζω (gavgízo).^[10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey uses it of dogs barking, and of barking at someone.^[9][3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of dogs.^[3][11][12]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it.^[11][12]
• 3rd century AD – Oppian's Cynegetica uses it transitively.^[6][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of dogs: to bark, bay; also in the middle.^[3][2][9]
2. To bark at someone (with an accusative).^[3][9][2]
3. (figurative) Of a person: to howl in vain.^[3][1]

Word family

• ὑλακτέω (hulaktéō)
• ὑλακή (hulakḗ)
• ὑλαγμός (hulagmós)
• ὑλακόμωρος (hulakómōros)
• μαψυλάκας (mapsulákas)

Related words

• ὀλολύζω (ololū́zō)
• Latin ululō

Usage notes

A dog's name formed from the same stem, Hylax, appears in Virgil, and the Odyssey has the patronymic Ὑλακίδης.^[10]

References

1. ^ 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
2. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
5. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
7. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
8. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
9. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ a b c d 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
11. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge