φολίς

Ancient Greek

FWOTD – 29 June 2014

Etymology

According to Beekes, from Pre-Greek. Has been also connected with Ancient Greek φελλός (phellós, “cork”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pʰo.lís/ → /ɸoˈlis/ → /foˈlis/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pʰo.lís/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /pʰoˈlis/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ɸoˈlis/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /foˈlis/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /foˈlis/

Noun

φολῐ́ς • (pholís) f (genitive φολῐ́δος); third declension

1. (of reptiles) horny scale (opposed to λεπίς (lepís), used of fish’s scales)
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, History of Animals 490B.22
   • 350 BCE, Aristotle, Parts of Animals 691A.16
   • 300 BCE – 250 BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.221
   • Oppian, Cynegetica 3.438
   • 200 BCE – 100 BCE, Nicander, Theriaca 257
   • 36 BCE – 30 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 17.105
   • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, On Vision 6
2. spot on a panther’s or leopard’s skin
   • 200 CE – 400 CE, Heliodorus of Emesa, Aethiopica 10.27
3. (in the phrase φολὶς λιθοκόλλητος) a ceiling in mosaic work
   • 36 BCE – 30 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 18.26
4. a bandage
   • 320 CE – 403 CE, Oribasius, Collected Works 48.20.11

Declension

Third declension of ἡ φολῐ́ς; τῆς φολῐ́δος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ φολῐ́ς hē pholís	τὼ φολῐ́δε tṑ pholíde	αἱ φολῐ́δες hai pholídes
Genitive	τῆς φολῐ́δος tês pholídos	τοῖν φολῐ́δοιν toîn pholídoin	τῶν φολῐ́δων tôn pholídōn
Dative	τῇ φολῐ́δῐ têi pholídi	τοῖν φολῐ́δοιν toîn pholídoin	ταῖς φολῐ́σῐ / φολῐ́σῐν taîs pholísi(n)
Accusative	τὴν φολῐ́δᾰ tḕn pholída	τὼ φολῐ́δε tṑ pholíde	τᾱ̀ς φολῐ́δᾰς tā̀s pholídas
Vocative	φολῐ́ς pholís	φολῐ́δε pholíde	φολῐ́δες pholídes
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.

Derived terms

• φολιδοῦσθαι (pholidoûsthai) (Koine)

Descendants

• Arabic: فَلْس (fals)
• English: pholidolite, pholidosis
• French: pholérite
  • → English: pholerite
• Greek: φολίδα (folída)

References

• “φολίς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• φολίς 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