βίος + βάλλω
Word
Validation
Yes
Word-form
βίβλος
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
biblos
English translation (word)
papyrus, book
Transliteration (Etymon)
bios + ballō
English translation (etymon)
life + to throw
Century
5 AD
Source
Idem
Ref.
Etymologicum (excerpta e cod. Vat. gr. 1456), 51
Ed.
A.M. Micciarelli Collesi, "Nuovi 'excerpta' dall' Etimologico di Orione," Byzantion 40 (1970): 521-542
Quotation
Βίβλος: διὰ τὸ τοὺς βίους βάλλεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ ... ἢ διὰ τὸ βαβαί ἢ διὰ τὸ βέβαιον
Translation (En)
Biblos ("book"): because lives (bious) are written down (lit. "thrown", ballesthai) in it… or because of the exclamation babai "wow!", or because it is lasting (bebaion)
Parallels
Etym. Gudianum, beta p. 270 (idem); Choeroboscus, Epimerismi in Psalmos p. 143 (Βιβλίον· παρὰ τὸ βύω, τὸ ἀσφαλίζω, ἢ παρὰ τὸ τοὺς ίους βάλλεσθαι ἐν αὐτῷ); Etym. Gudianum Additamenta, beta p. 269 (idem); Etym. Parvum, alpha 101 (Βίβλος βιβλίον· παρὰ τὸ τοὺς βίους βάλλεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ); Etym. Magnum, Kallierges p. 197 (Βίβλος: Διὰ τὸ τοὺς βίους βάλλεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ· ἢ παρὰ τὸ βύω, τὸ σφαλίζω. Καὶ βιβλίον)
Modern etymology
The name of the papyrus comes from the place name Byblos in Phoenicia, through metonymy
Persistence in Modern Greek
Βίβλος is used in MG designating: 1. the Bible, 2. (only in singular) the total of documents aiming at informing the broad public on several issues, 3. the set of rules for a field. MG also has βιβλίο "book" (from the diminutive βιβλίον).
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
This etymology parses the word as a compound of bios "life" + ballō "to throw". This etymology fits a certain category of books (histories, biographies, hagiographies, novels, to a certain extent tragedies and epics). The second element is assumed to be ballō because it has inflected forms with the zero grade stem [bl] (e.g. passive perfect beblēmai). The structure of the compound is SV, symmetrical of the regular structure OV with a passive verb