δῆλος
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
Δῆλος
Word-lemma
Etymon-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
dēlos
English translation (word)
Delos
Transliteration (Etymon)
dēlos
English translation (etymon)
clear
Century
3 BC
Source
Idem
Ref.
Del. 51-54
Ed.
S. Stephens, Callimachus, The Hymns, OUP, 2015
Quotation
ἡνίκα δ' Ἀπόλλωνι γενέθλιον οὖδας ὑπέσχες,/ τοῦτό τοι ἀντημοιβὸν ἁλίπλοοι οὔνομ' ἔθεντο,/ οὕνεκεν οὐκέτ' ἄδηλος ἐπέπλεες, ἀλλ' ἐνὶ πόντου/ κύμασιν Αἰγαίοιο ποδῶν ἐνεθήκαο ῥίζας
Translation (En)
But when you offered your soil for Apollo as a gift for his birth, sailors gave you this name in exchange, for you no longer sailed about adēlos “inconspicuous” but into the waves of the Aegean sea you put down the roots of your feet
Parallels
Theophrastus, Placit. 12.16
Modern etymology
Δῆλος is from *δέαλος, cognate with δέατο "he appeared", from *deih2- (Beekes, EDG)
Persistence in Modern Greek
The adjective is no longer used in Modern Greek. Only the name of the island exists
Entry By
Arnaud Zucker
Comment
IMPLICIT ETYMOLOGY. Play between the toponym/ the adjective and the negated privative compound (litotes)