[B-Greek] Was SKUBALON a swear/vulgar word?

Stephen C. Carlson scarlson at mindspring.com
Mon May 23 16:02:06 EDT 2005


"Carl W. Conrad" <cwconrad2 at mac.com> wrote:
>Not that's of any use; one would need to look at the sort of literature -- most 
>likely graffiti -- that either has not survived or that NT people are less likely
>to read -- mimes, dramatic sketches, perhaps epigrams; I think if anything relevant
>had come to light, you would have found it in BDAG. In sum, I think it's a question
>that excites people's curiosity but that nobody is able to produce anything definitive
>to answer the question. That is to say, I think the question is theoretically interesting,
>fundamentally harmless, and fundamentally useless.

I looked up the word in TLG.  Though its database of works is
probably far too literary or technical to resolve the question, the
word did show up in a lot of medical writings, which causes me
to doubt whether it had strong derogatory connotations.  My
sense from a very quick glance at those writings is that
SKUBALON meant something like "stool" in those contexts.

Stephen Carlson

--
Stephen C. Carlson, 
mailto:scarlson at mindspring.com 
"Poetry speaks of aspirations, and songs chant the words."  Shujing 2.35



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