ξύλον

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Ancient Greek[edit]

FWOTD - 11 November 2015

Etymology[edit]

Possibly cognate with Lithuanian šùlas ‎(“post, pole, stave”), Russian шу́ло ‎(šúlo, “garden-pole”), Serbo-Croatian šȗlj ‎(“block”), in which case it is from a Proto-Indo-European *kseulo-. Compare also Old High German sūl ‎(“style, pole”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌿𐌻𐍃 ‎(sauls, “pillar”).

Pronunciation[edit]

 

Noun[edit]

ξῠ́λον • ‎(xúlon) n ‎(genitive ξῠ́λου); second declension

  1. (mostly in plural) cut wood, timber
    • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 8.507
      ἐπὶ δὲ ξύλα πολλὰ λέγεσθε, ὥς κεν παννύχιοι μέσφ᾽ ἠοῦς ἠριγενείης καίωμεν πυρὰ πολλά
      And furthermore gather abundant wood, that all night long until early dawn we may burn fires full many.
  2. piece of wood, log, beam, post
    • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.327
      ἕστηκε ξύλον αὖον ὅσον τ᾽ ὄργυι᾽ ὑπὲρ αἴης
      There standeth, a fathom's height above the ground, a dry stump.
  3. cudgel, club, stick
    • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.63.1
      οἱ δὲ πολλοὶ αὐτῶν ξύλων κορύνας ἔχοντες ἑστᾶσι τοῦ ἱροῦ ἐν τῇ ἐσόδῳ
      [...] while most of them go and stand in the entrance to the temple with clubs in their hands.
  4. an instrument of punishment: wooden collar, stocks, gallows, stake
    • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 6.75.2
      ποιέοντα δὲ αὐτὸν ταῦτα καὶ παραφρονήσαντα ἔδησαν οἱ προσήκοντες ἐν ξύλῳ
      For doing this, and because he was out of his mind, his relative bound him in the stocks.
  5. bench, table
    • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Stephanus 1 33
      ἔστιν οὖν ὅστις ἂν τοῦ ξύλου καὶ τοῦ χωρίου καὶ τῶν γραμματείων τοσαύτην ὑπέμεινε φέρειν μίσθωσιν
      Now, is there any man who would have submitted to the payment of so large a rental for the table, the site, and the books?
  6. tree
    • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 6.4.5
      τὸ δὲ παρὰ θάλατταν πλέον ἢ ἐπὶ εἴκοσι σταδίους δασὺ πολλοῖς καὶ παντοδαποῖς καὶ μεγάλοις ξύλοις
      The land bordering the coast is thickly covered for more than twenty stadia with an abundance of heavy trees of all sorts.
  7. blockhead
  8. a measure of length: 3 or 2⅔ cubits
    • 10 CE – 70 CE, Hero, Geometrica 23.4.11

Declension[edit]

Second declension of τὸ ξῠ́λον; τοῦ ξῠ́λου
Case / # Singular Dual Plural
Nominative τὸ ξῠ́λον τὼ ξῠ́λω τᾰ̀ ξῠ́λᾰ
Genitive τοῦ ξῠ́λου τοῖν ξῠ́λοιν τῶν ξῠ́λων
Dative τῷ ξῠ́λῳ τοῖν ξῠ́λοιν τοῖς ξῠ́λοις
Accusative τὸ ξῠ́λον τὼ ξῠ́λω τᾰ̀ ξῠ́λᾰ
Vocative ξῠ́λον ξῠ́λω ξῠ́λᾰ
Notes: This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in dialects other than Attic, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Other attested forms: plural ξῠ́λεᾰ ‎(xúlea) (inscription in Kos)

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from ξύλον

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

  • Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume II, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 1037
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