[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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