δοῦλος

See also: δούλος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

  • δῶλος (dôlos) Cretan

Etymology

Related to Mycenaean Greek 𐀈𐀁𐀫 (do-e-ro) /dohelos/,[1] from Canaanite *dōʾēlu ‘servant, attendant’ (compare Late Babylonian 𒁕𒀝𒂵𒇻 (daggālu, subject, one who waits on another, does their bidding), Jewish Aramaic דַּיָּילָא (dayyālā)).[2]

According to professor Asko Parpola[3], the word δοῦλος is related to the ethnonym Dahae (found as Δάοι, Δάαι, Δαι or Δάσαι in Greek sources) and thus related to Sanskrit दस्यु (dasyu, bandit, brigand) and Sanskrit दास (dāsa) which originally meant 'demon' and later also 'slave' or 'fiend'.

Pronunciation

 

Adjective

δοῦλος • (doûlos) m (feminine δούλη, neuter δοῦλον); first/second declension

(Attic, Ionic)
  1. slavish, servile, subject

Inflection

Noun

δοῦλος • (doûlos) m (genitive δούλου); second declension

(Epic, Attic, Ionic, Koine)
  1. born slave or bondman

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

References

  1. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 249-250
  2. Rafał Rosół, Frühe Semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang GmbH, 2013), 18.
  3. Asko Parpola, The coming of the Aryans to Iran and India and the cultural and ethnic identity of the Dåsas (Helsinki: Studia Orientalia nº64, 1988), 195-202.
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