[B-Greek] The etymology of SKOLIOS

gabe coia pinelandspaddler at yahoo.com
Tue Oct 3 15:51:43 EDT 2006


I was wondering if someone could comment this:
   
  The suggested connection between skelos ("leg") and skolion ("crooked",
"bent") only serves to support the principle that adjectives speak of that
which pertains to the noun from which they are derived. Liddell and Scott
list a noun, skellos, in classical Greek, having the meaning
"crook-legged." Lampe, in his Patristic Greek Lexicon, offers an example
only of a metaphorical use of "skelos" (a part of a proposition), but also
notes a verb, skelisma, meaning "trip up" and a noun, skelismos, meaning
"snare" or "trap." Here there is an association with the idea of a leg,
even a leg getting bent. Most interestingly, Lampe, lists a compound noun,
skelokopoumai, which meant "have one's legs broken." This is the very
contextual association that the word "skelos" has in its only uses in the
N.T., in John 19:31-33. The noun skelos is connected with a verb meaning
"fracture." Usage of skelos suggests that the Greeks saw in this
particular word for "leg" the sense of a jointed limb, or a bent limb.
This would make the term a fitting one to use in speaking of the custom of
fracturing the leg of a criminal being crucified. This would suggest that
while skolion may not be directly derived from the noun skelos, both terms
can be traced back to a common root idea of something bent in shape. There
is no firm agreement that skolion is to be associated in its origin with
skelos, but if it is, a common element of meaning in both terms could
easily be traced.

  -Gabe Coia

 			
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