[B-Greek] The etymology of SKOLIOS
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue Oct 3 05:53:25 EDT 2006
On Oct 2, 2006, at 4:48 PM, gabe coia wrote:
> B-Greekers, I am trying to ascertain the relationship between
> SKOLIOS and SKELLO. The Complete Word Study Dictionary states that
> the former is directly derived from the latter in the sense of
> being "warped from dryness." Strong's, on the other hand, has it
> that SKOLIOS is directly derived from SKELOS. Could someone clear
> this up for me.
>
> - Gabe Coia (ignoramus maximus)
More often than not, etymology is useless and/or misleading with
regard to actual semantic value of a word in a given context within
the history of a language. Even if you know that the word "saunter"
in a sentence like "He sauntered into his office the next morning
without a care in the world" may possibly be derived from a medieval
French phrase for a crusader, "voyageur a la Sainte Terre," would it
really clarify the sense of the word as used in that sentence
currently? I honestly think that reading a few pages of Plato's
dialogue Cratylus might possibly deter one from devoting a lot of
time to the fascinating but more-or-less fruitless game of
etymological speculation.
So with the words about which you ask: the only etymological resource
for Greek that I have kept in my limited retirement reference library
is J.B. Hofmann's 1950 _Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Griechischen_.
It says, as does the Srong's etymology, that SKOLIOS "crooked,
perverted, false" relates to SKELOS "thigh" and an adjective SKELLOS
which is used by Hesiod to mean "bow-legged." The ultimate IE root
suggested for both is *sqel- with a fundamental sense of "bend" or
"contort." According to Hofmann, there's no relationship at all
between SKOLIOS and SKELOS or SKELLOS to the verb SKELLW, "cause to
dry out" although that verb is said to derive from a verbal root *(s)
quel- It's worth bearing in mind that there ARE roots that are
homonymous but not cognate.
One final word: you shouldn't be surprised to find that two sources
consulted about a word's etymology are in disagreement. A very large
part of etymological exploration is pure speculation or guesswork.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad2 at mac.com
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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