πύργος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

The word is first attested in Homer, Iliad 7.219. Believed to be a borrowed word, perhaps from Urartian 𒁓𒂵𒈾 (bur-ga-na /⁠burgana⁠/, “pillar, column; altar, base, or built-up foundation”), however this may itself be a loan with no known Hurrian cognate; compare also Old Armenian բուրգն (burgn, “pyramid”). Others connect the word to Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“high”), with cognates including Sanskrit बृहत् (bṛhát, “lofty, high, tall”), Old Armenian բարձր (barjr, “high”) and Old English burg (English borough). Kretschmer suggested a borrowing from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“fortified town, hill-fort”) mediated through some Northern Balkans language (Ancient Macedonian?). For Beekes, the abundance of Pre-Greek placenames, like e. g. Πέργαμον (Pérgamon), seems to indicate a Pre-Greek origin.

Pronunciation

Noun

πῠ́ργος • (púrgos) m (genitive πῠ́ργου); second declension

1. tower, watchtower
2. (in the plural) towered wall
3. the part of the house where women live
4. castle, fortress, bulwark
5. (military) division, column

Inflection

Derived terms

• πῠργοφῠ́λᾰξ (purgophúlax)
• Πυργούσσα (Purgoússa)

Descendants

• Greek: πύργος (pýrgos)
• →? Albanian: burg
• →? Late Latin: burgus (see there for further descendants)
• → Turkish: burgaz

Further reading

• “πύργος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “πύργος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “πύργος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• πύργος 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
• πύργος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “πύργος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G4444 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.
  • belfry idem, page 72.
  • bulwark idem, page 103.
  • defence idem, page 204.
  • harbour idem, page 385.
  • keep idem, page 467.
  • pinnacle idem, page 614.
  • protection idem, page 653.
  • refuge idem, page 685.
  • tower idem, page 884.
  • turret idem, page 902.
• 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
• πύργος - ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ (since 2011) Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch) University of Chicago.

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πύργος (púrgos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpiɾ.ɣos/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: πύρ‧γος

Noun

πύργος • (pýrgos) m (plural πύργοι)

1. tower

   κεντρικός πύργος ― kentrikós pýrgos ― central tower, castle keep

2. (chess) rook

Declension

Derived terms

• ακροπύργιο n (akropýrgio, “castle keep”)

See also

Chess pieces in Greek · πεσσοί (pessoí) (layout · text)
βασιλιάς (vasiliás)	βασίλισσα (vasílissa)	πύργος (pýrgos)	αξιωματικός (axiomatikós), τρελός (trelós)	ίππος (íppos)	στρατιώτης (stratiótis), πιόνι (pióni)

Further reading

• πύργος on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el