ἄλγος Ancient Greek · revision 2214

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=inherited|attested=Homer, Iliad}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ál.ɡos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈal.ɣos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈal.ɣos/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''ᾰ̓́λγος''' (álgos) ''n'' (genitive ἄλγους); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is uncertain.^(Beekes 2010)^(Bailly 2020) It is usually connected with [[ἀλέγω|tr=alégō|t=to care, heed]], and so perhaps [[inh|ine-pro|*h₂leg-|t=to care]];^(Wiktionary)^(Frisk 1960) a change from “care, worry” to “grief” has parallels such as English [[m|en|sorrow]] beside Dutch [[m|nl|zorgen|t=to take care]].^(Beekes 2010)^(Bailly 2020) Szemerényi defended the connection,^(Beekes 2010) but Beekes, in the Leiden version of his dictionary, judges the meanings too different and leaves ἄλγος without an etymology.^(Beekes 2010) Πάπυρος reports the view that ἄλγος and ἀλέγω are unrelated and only influenced each other, as in compounds in [[-ηλεγής|tr=-ēlegḗs]].^(Πάπυρος) The DGE instead starts from a root *h₂elg- and compares Old High German [[m|goh|ilki|t=hunger]].^(DGE)

+

+ The adjective [[ἀργαλέος|tr=argaléos|t=painful]] is dissimilated from *ἀλγαλέος.^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is found from Homer on, mostly in epic and poetry.^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960) In Homer it is mostly plural, “woes, hardships”: the wrath of Achilles “laid countless woes on the Achaeans”, and Odysseus suffered many griefs at sea.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE) Once in the ''Iliad'' it is clearly bodily pain, that of a wounded god.^(Cunliffe 1924)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Archaic and Classical poetry it is pain of body and, more often, of mind.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021) Hesiod personifies the Pains as children of Strife;^(DGE)^(CGL 2021) Solon warns that “from a little ache comes great pain”.^(DGE) Sophocles uses it of Philoctetes' festering wound, and the tragedians often of grief.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021) In prose it appears in medical writers and Xenophon for pain in a part of the body, such as the heart or the feet, and on an inscription from Epidaurus for a headache.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+

+ In Hellenistic poetry it came to mean the cause of grief: Theocritus' Daphnis will be “a grief to Love”.^(DGE)^(CGL 2021) The Septuagint uses it for the pain of wounds and the grief of the heart.^(Lust 2003)^(DGE)

+

+ Modern Greek has [[m|el|άλγος|tr=álgos]] as a learned word, mainly for mental pain.^(Triantafyllidis 1998)^(Etygram) English ''-algia'' comes from it.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Homer – The ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' use it, mostly in the plural, for sufferings.^(Cunliffe 1924)^(LSJ 1940)

+ * Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's ''Theogony'' personifies the Pains.^(DGE)^(CGL 2021)

+ * 7th–6th century BC – Solon contrasts a little ache with great pain.^(DGE)

+ * 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for the pain of Philoctetes' wound.^(LSJ 1940)^(DGE)

+ * 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of a person who causes grief.^(DGE)^(CGL 2021)

+ * Modern Greek – ''άλγος'' survives as a learned word.^(Triantafyllidis 1998)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Bodily [[m|en|pain]].^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # A physical [[m|en|ailment]], suffering.^(CGL 2021)

+ # Pain of mind, [[m|en|grief]], [[m|en|distress]].^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # ''(plural)'' Sufferings, hardships, woes.^(CGL 2021)^(Cunliffe 1924)

+ # ''(plural, personified)'' the Pains.^(CGL 2021)^(DGE)

+ # Something or someone that causes grief.^(CGL 2021)^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[ἀλγεινός|tr=algeinós]]

+ * [[ἀλγέω|tr=algéō]]

+ * [[ἀλγηδών|tr=algēdṓn]]

+ * [[ἄλγημα|tr=álgēma]]

+ * [[ἄλγησις|tr=álgēsis]]

+ * [[ἀναλγής|tr=analgḗs]]

+ * [[ἀναλγησία|tr=analgēsíā]]

+ * [[ἀνάλγητος|tr=análgētos]]

+ * [[ἀργαλέος|tr=argaléos]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[ἀλέγω|tr=alégō]]

+ * [[en|nostalgia]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Ancient writers already derived ἄλγος from [[ἀλέγω|tr=alégō]], explaining pain as “that about which one cares”.^(Etygram)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}