κᾶλον

Validation

Yes

Word-form

κλῆρος

Transliteration (Word)

klēros

English translation (word)

lot

Transliteration (Etymon)

kālon

English translation (etymon)

wood

Author

Herodian

Century

2 AD

Source

Orion

Ref.

Etymologicum, kappa, p. 84

Ed.

F. Sturz, Orionis Thebani etymologicon, Leipzig: Weigel, 1820

Quotation

Κλῆρος. κλῶ ἐστὶ ῥῆμα μονοσύλλαβον, ἀπὸ τοῦ καλῶ συγκοπέν· οὗ μέλλων κλήσω. ὄνομα κλῆρος· ὁ καλῶν ἐφ’ ἑαυτὸν τὸν λαχόντα. ὁ δὲ Ἡρωδιανὸς ἐν Ἐπιμερισμοῖς παρὰ τὸ κᾶλον τὸ ξύλον· ἐπεὶ ἐν ξύλοις ἐχαράττοντο οἱ κλῆροι

Translation (En)

Klēros "lot" : klô is a monosyllabic verb, from kalô "to call" through syncope, the future of which is klēsō; the noun is klēros, that which calls to itself him who obtains it. But Herodian in his Epimerisms says it come from kālon "wood", since the lots were engraved into wooden pieces

Comment

Descriptive etymology referring to the material of the referent. It seems that this etymology was devised as an alternative to Philoxenus' etymology through καλέω (see κλῆρος / καλέω): the latter was easy to justify because of the similarity of κλῆρος with the stem κλη- of the verb "to call" (future, passive aorist, perfect). Herodian's etymology though κᾶλον cannot be justified in the same way, as this noun has no stem κλη-, and the only way to account for it is to assume that the etymon καλέω in the first etymology suggested another etymon κᾶλον "wood"

Parallels

Epimerismi homerici ordine alphabetico traditi, kappa 59 (idem); Etym. Gudianum, kappa, p. 327 (idem); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 519 (idem); Eustathius, Comm. Il. 1, 658 (κλῆρος δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ τέλους τῆς κινήσεως παρὰ τὸ κλῶ, τὸ καλῶ, δι’ οὗ ἐκπηδήσαντος καλεῖταί τις εἰς ἔργον, ἢ μᾶλλον ἀπὸ τοῦ κᾶλον, τὸ ξύλον, κατὰ Ἡρωδιανόν, ὡς ξύλων μάλιστα πάλλεσθαι διδομένων ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις. χρῆσις δὲ τοῦ ῥηθέντος πάλλειν καὶ τοῦ κατ’ αὐτὸν κλήρου); ibid. 2, 435 (Κλῆρος δὲ λέγεται νῦν μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ καλεῖν τινα εἰς ἔριν πολέμου, ἄλλως δὲ ἁπλῶς ἐν τῷ καθόλου ἀπὸ τοῦ καλεῖν τινα εἰς προκείμενον ἔργον ἢ πρᾶγμα. ὡς δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ κάλου, ὅ ἐστι ξύλου, παράγεσθαι ὁ κλῆρος λέγεται, προγέγραπται καὶ αὐτό); Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon, kappa, p. 1217 (τὸ δὲ κλῆρος παρὰ τὸ κλῶ. ἢ διὰ τὸ κάλον καὶ τὸ ξύλον κλῆρος γέγονεν, ἐπειδὴ ἐν ξύλῳ οἱ κλῆροι ἐχαράσσοντο)

Modern etymology

Κλῆρος may belong with κλάω "to break", as lots were pieces of wood. There is a cognate in Celtic, Old Irish clár "plank" (Beekes, EDG)

Persistence in Modern Greek

The word is still used to designate: 1. the 'lot', 2. the piece of land as a property, 3. the clergy (calque from Hebrew; Triandafyllidis Dictionary of MG).

Entry By

Le Feuvre