ὠλένη

Forms

ὠλένη (ōlénē) f (genitive ὠλένης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ōlenā,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₃eHl-en- (“elbow”) or a similar form.^[2] Within Greek it shows several ablaut grades of an old n-stem: ὠλήν (ōlḗn) (inflected like αὐχήν (aukhḗn)), the extended ὠλένη, and the Hesychian ὠλλόν (ōllón, “bend of the arm”) from earlier *ὠλνόν (*ōlnón); a short first vowel appears in ὀλέκρανον (olékranon, “point of the elbow”).^[2][3]

Cognate with Latin ulna (“elbow, forearm”) and Old High German elina (“ell”), which Beekes thinks may also go back to a long first vowel, shortened before the accent.^[2] The Baltic and Slavic words, such as Lithuanian úolektis (“ell”), are not n-stems, so the n-stem was probably made only in the western languages in late Proto-Indo-European, from a root form with a long vowel.^[2] Armenian ուլն (uln) has the same n-stem but means “vertebrae, neck”, and it is unclear whether the meanings can be bridged.^[2][1] Wiktionary also compares Sanskrit अरत्नि (aratní, “elbow”) and Old English elnboga (“elbow”), but calls the reconstruction uncertain.^[1]

Ancient writers explained the word from ὁλόομαι (holóomai, “to be made whole”): Soranus said the arms are so called because deeds are completed with them.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The compound λευκώλενος (leukṓlenos, “white-armed”), an epithet of Hera, is already in the Iliad.^[2][5] The simple word is first found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, for the forearm or arm.^[5][2][6]

Semantic evolution

In tragedy, above all in Euripides, the word is common in the plural for the arms, especially arms that embrace or carry someone: to throw one's arms around a person's neck, to hold someone in one's arms.^[5][7] In Comedy it is mock-tragic.^[7] Later prose has it in Lucian, who also uses it for the wing-bone of a bird.^[5]

From the sense “armful” it came to mean a bundle of reeds and then a reed mat or mattress, in late texts and the papyri, and it glosses Latin torus in the bilingual glossaries.^[2][3][5]

Modern Greek ωλένη (oléni) is a learned revival, the anatomical name of the ulna, one of the two bones of the forearm.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad has the compound λευκώλενος (leukṓlenos), used of Hera.^[2][5]
• 6th century BC – The Homeric Hymn to Hermes has the earliest instance of the simple word.^[5][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it in the Prometheus Bound.^[5][10]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it often for the arms that embrace or carry a person.^[5][7][10]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian uses it in prose, and of the wing-bone of a bird.^[5][10]
• 2nd century AD – Soranus derives it from “being completed”.^[4]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned anatomical term for the ulna.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The elbow, or rather the forearm; the arm, usually in the plural.^[5][7][2]
2. The wing-bone of a bird.^[5]
3. (late) A bundle of reeds, properly an armful; a reed mat or mattress.^[2][5]

Word family

• ὠλέκρανον (ōlékrānon)
• λευκώλενος (leukṓlenos)
• ἐπωλένιος (epōlénios)
• ὠλενίς (ōlenís)

Related words

• Latin ulna
• English elbow

Usage notes

A grammarian's note in Bekker's Anecdota calls it a word of Cleitor in Arcadia.^[5] Hesychius glosses στεφάναι as “the arms of the altars”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge