ζῆλος

See also: Ζῆλος and ζήλος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *yeh₂- (“to go, travel, search, inquire”). Related to Ζητήρ (Zētḗr).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /zdɛ̂ː.los/ → /ˈzi.los/ → /ˈzi.los/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /zdɛ̂ː.los/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈze̝.los/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈzi.los/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈzi.los/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈzi.los/

Noun

ζῆλος • (zêlos) m (genitive ζήλου); second declension

1. eager rivalry, zealous imitation, emulation, a noble passion
   • 386 BCE – 367 BCE, Plato, Menexenus 242A
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Rhetoric 2.11.1
   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 193
   • 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, Collected Works 195.13
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Philebus 47E
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Philebus 50B
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 679C
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 550E
   1. (with genitive) zeal for one
      • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 943
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Theseus 25
      • 125 CE – 200 CE, Lucian, Demonax 57
   2. (with genitive)
      • 424 BCE, Euripides, Hecuba 352
      • 125 CE – 200 CE, Lucian, The Ignorant Book-Collector 17
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Coriolanus 4
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Pericles 2
2. (passive voice) the object of emulation or desire, happiness, bliss, honour, glory
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 503
   • 330 BCE, Demosthenes, On the Crown 217
   • 330 BCE, Demosthenes, On the Crown 120
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Aristocrates 64, (Compare On the Crown 273, Funeral Speech 33)
3. (of the style of Asiatic Orators) extravagance, fierceness
   • 64 BCE – 24 CE, Strabo, Geography 648
   • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Mark Antony 2
   • New Testament, Epistle to the Hebrews 10:27

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ ζῆλος; τοῦ ζήλου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ζῆλος ho zêlos	τὼ ζήλω tṑ zḗlō	οἱ ζῆλοι hoi zêloi
Genitive	τοῦ ζήλου toû zḗlou	τοῖν ζήλοιν toîn zḗloin	τῶν ζήλων tôn zḗlōn
Dative	τῷ ζήλῳ tôi zḗlōi	τοῖν ζήλοιν toîn zḗloin	τοῖς ζήλοις toîs zḗlois
Accusative	τὸν ζῆλον tòn zêlon	τὼ ζήλω tṑ zḗlō	τοὺς ζήλους toùs zḗlous
Vocative	ζῆλε zêle	ζήλω zḗlō	ζῆλοι zêloi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Synonyms

• (eager rivalry): φθόνος (phthónos)

Derived terms

• ζηλοτυπία (zēlotupía)
• ζηλότυπος (zēlótupos)
• ζηλόω (zēlóō)
• ζηλωτής (zēlōtḗs)
• χᾰμαίζηλος (khamaízēlos)

Descendants

• Greek: ζήλος (zílos)
• → Latin: zelus
  • Albanian: zell
  • Catalan: zel
  • English: zeal
  • French: zèle
  • Italian: zelo
  • Portuguese: cio, zelo, ciúme
  • Romanian: zel
  • Spanish: celo

Further reading

• “ζῆλος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ζῆλος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ζῆλος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• G2205 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • admiration idem, page 12.
  • bliss idem, page 83.
  • competition idem, page 151.
  • emulation idem, page 269.
  • envy idem, page 279.
  • happiness idem, page 384.
  • rivalry idem, page 718.