ὕλη

Forms

ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē) f (genitive ῡ̔́λης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][3] Beekes rejects the old comparisons with Latin silva (“forest”) and with ξύλον (xúlon, “wood”).^[2][1] Taking “firewood” as the original sense, he finds two possibilities: with Vine, it may be inherited from Proto-Indo-European *swolh₂-, from *swel- (“to smoulder”), with /o/ becoming /u/ by Cowgill's law; or, with Wackernagel, it may be connected with Old Norse usli (“glowing ashes”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ews- (“to burn”), the root of εὕω (heúō) and Latin ūrō (“to burn”).^[2][1]

Mycenaean names such as Mycenaean Greek u-ra-jo may contain the word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a forest or woodland, and wood that has been cut, firewood and timber.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Classical prose kept the senses forest, brushwood and timber, Xenophon distinguishing undergrowth from timber trees.^[4] From “wood” as the stuff things are made of, the word came to mean material in general.^[4][3]

Aristotle was the first to make it a philosophical term, “matter”, the substrate that receives coming-to-be and passing-away.^[4] From this came the matter of a poem or treatise (Polybius), the materia medica of Dioscorides, and sediment, mud and, in medical writers, matter excreted from the body.^[4] Beekes explains “mud” as a late development from “solid matter, dregs”.^[4][2] In the Letter of James it most likely means a forest.^[5]

It was borrowed as Latin hyle.^[6] Modern Greek ύλη (íli) is a learned word; its sense “matter”, the substance of bodies, follows French matière.^[7] The chemical suffix -yl comes from it through French.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for forest and firewood, the Odyssey for timber.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus describes a land thick with every kind of wood.^[4][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle makes it the term for matter in philosophy.^[4][9]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for the matter of a literary work.^[4][9]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it for the materials of medicine.^[4][9]
• Modern Greek – ύλη (íli) means matter and material.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A forest, woodland; brushwood, undergrowth.^[4][5]
2. Wood cut down: firewood, timber.^[4]
3. Material, the stuff a thing is made of.^[4]
4. (philosophy) Matter, as opposed to form.^[4]
5. The subject matter of a poem or treatise.^[4]
6. (medicine) Medicinal substances; sediment, mud; matter excreted from the body.^[4][2]

Word family

• ἄϋλος (áṻlos)
• ἔνυλος (énulos)
• ὑλήεις (hūlḗeis)
• ὑλικός (hūlikós)
• ὕλημα (húlēma)
• ὑλοτόμος (hūlotómos)
• ὑλώδης (hulṓdēs)

Related words

• Latin hyle

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b 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
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge