χολάς

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

χολλᾰ́δες (kholládes)

Etymology

Proto-Slavic *želǫdъkъ (“stomach”) shows remarkable similarity with this word: Russian желу́док (želúdok), Czech žaludek, Polish żołądek, which may be reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European *gʰel-ond-, showing a similar formation to that of the Greek word if it comes from Proto-Indo-European *gʰol-nd-.[1] Lithuanian skilándis (“sausage-stomach”) is considered unrelated, but shows the same suffix. There are a number of problems with this account: first, the deviating form of χόλιξ (khólix, “bowels of oxen”) remains unexplained. Second, Furnée compares not only κόλον (kólon, “large intestine”), but also καλίδια (kalídia, “intestines”) and γόλα (góla), γάλλια (gállia) and γάλλος (gállos); he also adduces Old Armenian քաղիրթ (kʻałirtʻ, “intestines of animals”). Beekes takes the variation as showing that the word is likely Pre-Greek.[1] Hayden and Stifter derive both the Greek lemma and Slavic *želǫdъkъ from Proto-Indo-European *gʰelH-ond-, from the root *gʰelH- (“digestive organ, stomach”) found also in Celtic: Old Irish eclas (“gizzard”), gaile (“stomach”), Breton elaz (“gizzard”), Welsh glasog (“gizzard”), afu glas (“gizzard”), Old Cornish glas (“stomach”).[2][3]

Pronunciation

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

Noun

χολᾰ́ς • (kholás) f (genitive χολᾰ́δος); third declension

(anatomy) abdominal cavity
(in the plural) bowels, guts
Synonyms: ἐγκοίλῐᾰ (enkoília), ἔντερον (énteron), σπλᾰ́γχνον (splánkhnon)

Declension

Third declension of ἡ χολᾰ́ς; τῆς χολᾰ́δος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ χολᾰ́ς hē kholás	τὼ χολᾰ́δε tṑ kholáde	αἱ χολᾰ́δες hai kholádes
Genitive	τῆς χολᾰ́δος tês kholádos	τοῖν χολᾰ́δοιν toîn kholádoin	τῶν χολᾰ́δων tôn kholádōn
Dative	τῇ χολᾰ́δῐ têi kholádi	τοῖν χολᾰ́δοιν toîn kholádoin	ταῖς χολᾰ́σῐ / χολᾰ́σῐν taîs kholási(n)
Accusative	τὴν χολᾰ́δᾰ tḕn kholáda	τὼ χολᾰ́δε tṑ kholáde	τᾱ̀ς χολᾰ́δᾰς tā̀s kholádas
Vocative	χολᾰ́ς kholás	χολᾰ́δε kholáde	χολᾰ́δες kholádes
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.

References

Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “χολάδες”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1641
David Stifter (2022 September 14) “Etymology of Old Irish eclas "gizzard" (St Cormac's Day 2022)”, in David Stifter’s YouTube Channel‎
Deborah Hayden, David Stifter (2022) “The lexicography and etymology of OIr. eclas”, in North American Journal of Celtic Studies‎, volume 6, number 2, →DOI, pages 236–250