δέος + ὅλος
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
δοῦλος
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
doulos
English translation (word)
slave
Transliteration (Etymon)
deos + holos
English translation (etymon)
fear + whole
Century
6 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
In Platonis Alcibiadem commentarii 160
Ed.
L.G. Westerink, Olympiodorus. Commentary on the first Alcibiades of Plato, Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1956 (repr. 1982)
Quotation
‘δοῦλος’ γὰρ εἴρηται παρὰ τὸ δέος· ὁ γὰρ δοῦλος ᾖ δοῦλος δέδιεν καὶ ὅλος ἐστὶ τοῦ δεσπότου, ἀεὶ ἐν νῷ αὐτὸν ἔχων.
Translation (En)
The "slave" (doulos) is so named because of the fear (deos): because the slave, as a slave, fears and is entirely (holos) the possession of his master, having the latter always in mind.
Parallels
Eustathius, Exegesis in canonem iambicum pentecostalem 1.120 (οὕτω γὰρ πρὸς τοὺς δεσπότας τὸ δοῦλον γένος διακεῖσθαι χρεών, ἐπεί τοι καὶ ὁ δοῦλος παρὰ τὸ δέους ὅλος εἶναι ὠνόμασται).
The etymology by δέος alone may be implicit in Antisthenes, fr. 119 (ap. Stobaeum, Anth. 3.8.14) ὅστις δὲ ἑτέρους δέδοικε, δοῦλος ὢν λέληθεν ἑαυτόν "he who fears others is a slave without knowing it".
Modern etymology
Myc. do-e-ro shows that the word probably is an older *doselo-, but the etymology is unknown (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
Yes
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
Compositional etymology, probably building on a simpler one etymologizing the word from δέος "fear". Here the slave is said to be "entirely fear". The fact that as a rule compounds with a noun and an adjective display the order Adj.-Noun and not Noun-Adj. was not taken into account, and the two elements are juxtaposed rather than syntactically related.