αὐλός

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *aulós, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ewlós, nominalization of *h₂ewlo- (“tube, hollow, channel”).

Cognates include Lithuanian aulas, avilỹs, Norwegian aul, Hittite (auli-, “tube-shaped organ in the neck”), Albanian hollë, Old Armenian օղ (ōł), and perhaps also Latin alvus, Old Church Slavonic улица (ulica, “small lane, narrow street”), and Old Armenian ուղի (ułi, “road, way, passage”). Semantically compare Sanskrit वेणु (veṇu, “reed, tube; flute, pipe”).

Pronunciation

Noun

αὐλός • (aulós) m (genitive αὐλοῦ); second declension

1. (music) any pipe-shaped instrument: flute, clarinet, pipe
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 18.495:

     κοῦροι δ’ ὀρχηστῆρες ἐδίνεον, ἐν δ’ ἄρα τοῖσιν αὐλοὶ φόρμιγγές τε βοὴν ἔχον

     koûroi d’ orkhēstêres edíneon, en d’ ára toîsin auloì phórmingés te boḕn ékhon

     And young men were whirling in the dance, and in their midst flutes and lyres sounded continually.

2. hollow tube, pipe, groove, shaft
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.227:

     περόνη τέτυκτο αὐλοῖσιν διδύμοισι

     perónē tétukto auloîsin didúmoisi

     The buckle was furnished with two grooves

3. blowhole, duct
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, History of Animals 589b.19
   • 350 BCE, Aristotle, Parts of Animals 697a.17
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, History of Animals 524a.10
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, History of Animals 507a.10
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, On Respiration 478b.8
4. stadium
   • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Lycophron, Alexandra 40
5. haulm (of grain)
6. cowbane (Cicuta virosa)
   • 200 CE – 400 CE, Pseudo-Plutarch, On Rivers 10.3
7. razor shell
   • 250 CE – 350 CE, Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 3.90d

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

• Greek: αυλός (avlós)

See also

• γίγγρος (gíngros)
• μάρδος (márdos)
• συβήνη (subḗnē)
• σωλήν (sōlḗn)

Further reading

• “αὐλός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “αὐλός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “αὐλός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• αὐλός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• αὐλός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• αὐλός in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• “αὐλός”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G836 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • flute idem, page 330.
  • groove idem, page 374.
  • pipe idem, page 614.
  • reed idem, page 684.
  • spout idem, page 805.
  • tap idem, page 855.
  • tube idem, page 900.
  • wind instrument idem, page 980.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN