Achilles

English

Achilles against Agamemnon, Roman mosaic from Pompeii

Alternative forms

• Achilleus, Akhilles, Akhilleus

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin Achillēs, from Ancient Greek Ἀχιλλεύς (Akhilleús).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /əˈkɪliːz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪliːz

Proper noun

Achilles

1. (Greek mythology) A mythical semidivine hero, the son of Peleus by the nereid Thetis, and prince of the Myrmidons, who features in the Iliad as a central character and the foremost warrior of the Achaean (Greek) camp.
   • c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.

   • 1715, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, chapter 1, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring
     Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!

   • 1910, Friedrich Nietzsche, chapter 3, in William A. Haussmann, transl., edited by Oscar Levy, The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism (The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche; 1)‎^[1], Edinburgh; London: T. N. Foulis, page 36:

     If once the lamentation is heard, it will ring out again, of the short-lived Achilles, of the leaf-like change and vicissitude of the human race, of the decay of the heroic age.

   • 2012, Richard Holway, Becoming Achilles: Child-Sacrifice, War, and Misrule in the Iliad and Beyond‎^[2], Rowman & Littlefield (Lexington Books), page 153:

     In the last third of the Iliad, Achilles’ beloved companion, Patroklos, and his bitter enemy, Hektor, die wearing Achilles’ armor, their deaths prefiguring Achilles’ own.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Achilles.
2. (rare) A male given name from Ancient Greek.
3. (astronomy) The Greek camp Trojan asteroid 588 Achilles.

Derived terms

• Achillean
• Achilles heel
• Achilles jerk
• Achilles number
• Achilles reflex
• Achilles tendon
• achillorrhaphy
• achillotomy
• Patrochilles

Translations

Greek mythical hero

• Albanian: Akil m
• Arabic: أَخِيل m (ʔaḵīl)
• Armenian: Աքիլլես (hy) (Akʻilles)

  Old Armenian: Աքիլլէս (Akʻillēs)

• Basque: Akil
• Bulgarian: Ахил (Ahil), Ахилес (Ahiles)
• Catalan: Aquil·les (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 阿喀琉斯 (zh) (Ākāliúsī), 阿基里斯 (zh) (Ājīlǐsī)

• Coptic: ⲁⲭⲓⲗⲗⲉⲩⲉ (akhilleue)
• Czech: Achilleus (cs) m
• Danish: Achilleus
• Dutch: Achilles (nl)
• Esperanto: Aĥilo, Akilo
• Estonian: Achilleus (et)
• Finnish: Akhilleus (fi), Akilles (fi)
• French: Achille (fr) m
• Friulian: Achil
• Georgian: აქილევსი (akilevsi)
• German: Achilleus (de) m
• Greek: Αχιλλέας (el) m (Achilléas)

  Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς m (Akhilleús)

• Greenlandic: Achilleusi
• Hebrew: אכילס (Ahils)
• Hindi: अकिलीज़ m (akilīz)
• Hungarian: Akhilleusz (hu)
• Indonesian: Achilles
• Interlingua: Achilles
• Inuktitut: ᐊᑭᓪᓕᔅ (akillis)
• Irish: Aichill m
• Italian: Achille (it)
• Japanese: アキレス (Akiresu), アキレウス (Akireusu)
• Khmer: អាឈីល (ʼaachiil)
• Korean: 아킬레스 (Akilleseu)
• Latin: Achillēs (la)
• Latvian: Achilas
• Macedonian: Ахил (Ahil)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Akilles m

• Polish: Achilles (pl) m, Achil m
• Portuguese: Aquiles (pt)
• Russian: Ахи́лл (ru) m (Axíll), Ахилле́с (ru) m (Axillés)
• Serbo-Croatian: Ahil (sh) m, Ahilej m
• Sicilian: Achilli m, Achiḍḍi m
• Slovene: Ahíl (sl) m
• Spanish: Aquiles (es) m
• Swedish: Akilles (sv), Achilles (sv)
• Turkish: Aşil
• Ukrainian: Ахіллес m (Axilles), Ахі́лл m (Axíll)
• Vietnamese: A-sin (vi)

Further reading

• Achilles (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:Achilles on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Cebuano

Etymology

From English Achilles, borrowed from Latin Achilles, from Ancient Greek Ἀχιλλεύς (Akhilleús).

Proper noun

Achilles

1. (Greek mythology) Achilles
2. a male given name from English [in turn from Ancient Greek]

Czech

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈaxɪlɛs]

Proper noun

Achilles m anim (relational adjective Achillův)

1. Achilles (Ancient Greek hero)

Declension

Declension of Achilles (sg-only hard masculine animate foreign)

	singular
nominative	Achilles
genitive	Achilla
dative	Achillovi, Achillu
accusative	Achilla
vocative	Achille
locative	Achillovi, Achillu
instrumental	Achillem

Further reading

• “Achilles”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “Achilles”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Alternative forms

• Achilleus, Akilleus, Akilles

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Ἀχιλλεύς (Akhilleús).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [aˈkʰiləs]

Proper noun

Achilles

1. Achilles

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin Achilles, from Ancient Greek Ἀχιλλεύς (Akhilleús).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɑˈxɪ.ləs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Achil‧les

Proper noun

Achilles m

1. Achilles

Derived terms

• achillespees

Kashubian

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓χῐλλεύς (Ăkhĭlleús)bor.

Latin Achillēslbor.

Polish Achillesbor.

Kashubian Achilles

Borrowed from Polish Achilles.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈxil.lɛs/
• Rhymes: -illɛs
• Syllabification: A‧chil‧les

Proper noun

Achilles m pers (related adjective achillesowi)

1. (uncountable, Greek mythology) Achilles (mythical semidivine hero, the son of Peleus by the nereid Thetis, and prince of the Myrmidons, who features in the Iliad as a central character and the foremost warrior of the Achaean (Greek) camp)
2. (countable, rare) a male given name from Latin [in turn from Ancient Greek], equivalent to English Achilles

Further reading

• Jan Trepczyk (1994), “Achilles”, in Słownik polsko-kaszubski (in Kashubian), volumes 1–2
• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011), “Achilles”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎^[3]

Latin

Alternative forms

• Achille͡us

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓χῐλλεύς (Ăkhĭlleús)bor.

Latin Achillēs

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓χῐλλεύς (Ăkhĭlleús).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [aˈkʰɪl.leːs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aˈkil.les]

Proper noun

Achillēs m sg (genitive Achillis or Achillī or Achilleī); third declension

1. (Greek mythology) Achilles
   • c. 35 BCE, Horatius, Sermones 2.3.193:

     "Cōnsule." "Cūr Aiāx, hērōs ab Achille secundus,
     pūtēscit, totiēns servātīs clārus Achīvīs?"

     • 1926 translation by H. Rushton Fairclough

       "Pray, do." "Why does Ajax, a hero second only to Achilles, lie rotting, though so often he won glory by saving the Greeks?"

   • c. 30 BCE, Horatius, Epodi 17.14:

     Ūnxere mātrēs Īliae additum ferīs
     ālitibus atque canibus homicīdam Hectorem,
     postquam relictīs moenibus rēx prōcidit
     heu pervicācis ad pedēs Achilleī.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 23 BCE – 13 BCE, Horatius, Carmina 1.15.34:

     Īrācunda diem proferet Īliō
     mātrōnisque Phrygum classis Achilleī;
     post certās hiemēs ūret Achāicus
     ignis Īliacās domōs.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 30 BCE – 16 BCE, Propertius, Elegiae 2.9a.13:

     foedāvitque comās, et tantī corpus Achillī
     maximaque in parvā sustulit ossa manū

     • 1990 translation by G. P. Goold

       she soiled her hair and in her little hand took up the body of the huge Achilles and his giant bones

   • 2 CE, Ovidius, Ars Amatoria 1.743:

     At nōn Actoridēs lectum temerāvit Achillis

     • 1929 translation by J. H. Mozley, revised by G. P. Goold

       But, you will say, the son of Actor stained not Achilles' couch

   • 12 CE – 13 CE, Ovidius, Epistulae ex Ponto 3.3.43, (Some editions prefer the reading "ab Achillī"):

     praemia nec Chīrōn ab Achillē tālia cēpit

     • 1924 translation by A. L. Wheeler, revised by G. P. Goold

       nor did Chiron receive such a reward from Achilles

Declension

Third-declension noun, singular only.

	singular
nominative	Achillēs
genitive	Achillis Achillī Achilleī
dative	Achillī
accusative	Achillem Achillea Achillēn
ablative	Achille
vocative	Achillēs

Derived terms

• achillēus
• Achillīdes

Descendants

• → English: Achilles
• → French: Achille
• → German: Achill
• → Italian: Achille
• → Spanish: Aquiles

Further reading

• “Achillēs” in volume 1, column 391, line 67 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• “Achilles”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Achilles”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “Achilles”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Achilles in D. P. Simpson, Cassell's Latin Dictionary, Wiley Publishing, 1968

Polish

Achilles

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek Ᾰ̓χῐλλεύς (Ăkhĭlleús)bor.

Latin Achillēslbor.

Polish Achilles

Learned borrowing from Latin Achillēs. Doublet of Achil.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈxil.lɛs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -illɛs
• Syllabification: A‧chil‧les
• Homophone: achilles

Proper noun

Achilles m pers (related adjective achillesowy)

1. (uncountable, Greek mythology) Achilles (mythical semidivine hero, the son of Peleus by the nereid Thetis, and prince of the Myrmidons, who features in the Iliad as a central character and the foremost warrior of the Achaean (Greek) camp)

   Synonym: Achil

2. (countable, rare) a male given name from Latin [in turn from Ancient Greek], equivalent to English Achilles

Declension

Declension of Achilles

	singular	plural
nominative	Achilles	Achillesowie/Achillesi
genitive	Achillesa	Achillesów
dative	Achillesowi	Achillesom
accusative	Achillesa	Achillesów
instrumental	Achillesem	Achillesami
locative	Achillesie	Achillesach
vocative	Achillesie	Achillesowie/Achillesi

Derived terms

nouns

• achilles

Related terms

nouns

• Achil

Further reading

• “Achilles”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[4] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “Achilles”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[5] (in Polish)
• Achilles in PWN's encyclopedia

Portuguese

Proper noun

Achilles m

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of Aquiles

Swedish

Proper noun

Achilles c (genitive Achilles)

1. (Greek mythology) alternative spelling of Akilles (“Achilles”)

Usage notes

The classic Swedish translation of Homer's works by Erland Lagerlöf in 1912 uses this name form.