σπολάς

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Perhaps from a verb for "split, tear off", in which case it may be related to σπόλια (spólia, “wool plucked off the leg of sheep”), ἄσπαλον (áspalon, “skin, hide”), but hardly to Thessalian σπόλος (spólos, “pole”). From other languages: Latin spolium (“arms, spoils”), Lithuanian spālis (“beard, part of the stalk of flax”) and German spalten (“to cleave”), all reflecting a root *spel(H)- (“what is split, stripped off”). The word may also reflect the Pre-Greek root that is also seen in ἄσπαλον (áspalon, “mole”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /spo.lás/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /spoˈlas/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /spoˈlas/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /spoˈlas/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /spoˈlas/

Noun

σπολᾰ́ς • (spolás) f (genitive σπολᾰ́δος); third declension

leathern garment, jerkin

Declension

Third declension of ἡ σπολᾰ́ς; τῆς σπολᾰ́δος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ σπολᾰ́ς hē spolás	τὼ σπολᾰ́δε tṑ spoláde	αἱ σπολᾰ́δες hai spoládes
Genitive	τῆς σπολᾰ́δος tês spoládos	τοῖν σπολᾰ́δοιν toîn spoládoin	τῶν σπολᾰ́δων tôn spoládōn
Dative	τῇ σπολᾰ́δῐ têi spoládi	τοῖν σπολᾰ́δοιν toîn spoládoin	ταῖς σπολᾰ́σῐ / σπολᾰ́σῐν taîs spolási(n)
Accusative	τὴν σπολᾰ́δᾰ tḕn spoláda	τὼ σπολᾰ́δε tṑ spoláde	τᾱ̀ς σπολᾰ́δᾰς tā̀s spoládas
Vocative	σπολᾰ́ς spolás	σπολᾰ́δε spoláde	σπολᾰ́δες spoládes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Nominative singular -ς (-s) arose by reduction of the original cluster *-ds.

Descendants

Greek: σπολά (spolá)

References

“σπολάς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
σπολάς in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
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, →ISBN