ἄγλις

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Beekes labels this as Pre-Greek. Related to γέλγις (gélgis, “head of garlic”).[1] Kroonen (2012) proposes an ultimate Akkadian etymology of such a Pre-Greek word. He reconstructs an ablaut form *agdl-, which he derives from Akkadian 𒄀𒀉𒇻 (/⁠gidlu⁠/, “string of garlic or onions”). The theory also supposes that the initial alpha came from Pre-Greek. The same paper, in a footnote, proposes that Latin allium was borrowed from this root as well.[2]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /á.ɡliːs/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɡlis/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɣlis/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɣlis/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈa.ɣlis/

Noun

ἄγλῑς • (áglīs) f (genitive ἄγλῑθος); third declension

clove of garlic

Declension

Third declension of ἡ ἄγλῑς; τῆς ἄγλῑθος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ἄγλῑς hē áglīs	τὼ ἄγλῑθε tṑ áglīthe	αἱ ἄγλῑθες hai áglīthes
Genitive	τῆς ἄγλῑθος tês áglīthos	τοῖν ἀγλῑ́θοιν toîn aglī́thoin	τῶν ἀγλῑ́θων tôn aglī́thōn
Dative	τῇ ἄγλῑθῐ têi áglīthi	τοῖν ἀγλῑ́θοιν toîn aglī́thoin	ταῖς ἄγλῑσῐ / ἄγλῑσῐν taîs áglīsi(n)
Accusative	τὴν ἄγλῑθᾰ tḕn áglītha	τὼ ἄγλῑθε tṑ áglīthe	τᾱ̀ς ἄγλῑθᾰς tā̀s áglīthas
Vocative	ἄγλῑς áglīs	ἄγλῑθε áglīthe	ἄγλῑθες áglīthes
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 *-tʰs.

References

Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἄγλῑς, -ῑθος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 13
Kroonen, Guus (2012) “An Akkadian loanword in Pre-Greek: on the etymology of Greek ἄγλις and γέλγις 'garlic'”, in The Journal of Indo-European Studies‎, volume 40, pages 289-299