παλαιός

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

Etymology

From πάλαι (pálai, long ago). Likely cognate with Mycenaean Greek 𐀞𐀨𐀍 (pa-ra-jo), which has been argued to mean “old”; this connection points to a Proto-Hellenic *palai(y)ós and casts doubt on the popularly proposed etymology from Proto-Indo-European *kʷel-.[1][2]

Pronunciation

 

Adjective

πᾰλαιός • (palaiós) m (feminine πᾰλαιᾱ́, neuter πᾰλαιόν); first/second declension

  1. old, aged
    Synonym: γεραιός (geraiós)
  2. ancient, of times past
    Synonym: ἀρχαῖος (arkhaîos)
  3. time-honoured, venerable
  4. antiquated, outdated

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Greek: παλιός (paliós)
  • English: paleo-, palaeo-
  • Irish: pailé-
  • German: paläo-
  • French: paléo-

Further reading

  1. John Chadwick, Lydia Baumbach (1963) “The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary”, in Glotta : Zeitschrift für griechische und lateinische Sprache, volume 41, number 3/4, Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 232 of 157–271:πάλαι
  2. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “πάλαι”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 1144–1145

Greek

Alternative forms

Adjective

παλαιός • (palaiós) m (feminine παλαιά, neuter παλαιό)

  1. long established, old, former, not modern, worn out

Usage notes

  • In general, for positive forms, παλιός is more common than παλαιός, however with the degrees of comparison forms inflected from παλαιότερος and παλαιότατος are more frequent than those from παλιότερος and παλιότατος.

Declension

See also

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