ἀμολγός

Ancient Greek

Etymology

The exact meaning had already been lost in antiquity. If a verbal noun of ἀμέλγω (amélgō, “to milk”), it means "the milking" (and the oxytonesis is secondary). Nilsson took it as the time of milking at the beginning of the night. Several authors argue that the word indicates the "evening twilight", and adduce parallels from other languages for an original meaning "night milking". Still, if ὁμολογῷ (homologôi, “at night”) (a gloss found in Hesychius) points to *ὀμολγός (*omolgós), the alternation ἀ-/ὀ- could point to a substrate word.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /a.mol.ɡós/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /a.molˈɡos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /a.molˈɣos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /a.molˈɣos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /a.molˈɣos/

Noun

ἀμολγός • (amolgós) m (genitive ἀμολγοῦ); second declension

(disputed sense) depth, gloom of night
evening or morning twilight

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ ἀμολγός; τοῦ ἀμολγοῦ (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ἀμολγός ho amolgós	τὼ ἀμολγώ tṑ amolgṓ	οἱ ἀμολγοί hoi amolgoí
Genitive	τοῦ ἀμολγοῦ toû amolgoû	τοῖν ἀμολγοῖν toîn amolgoîn	τῶν ἀμολγῶν tôn amolgôn
Dative	τῷ ἀμολγῷ tôi amolgôi	τοῖν ἀμολγοῖν toîn amolgoîn	τοῖς ἀμολγοῖς toîs amolgoîs
Accusative	τὸν ἀμολγόν tòn amolgón	τὼ ἀμολγώ tṑ amolgṓ	τοὺς ἀμολγούς toùs amolgoús
Vocative	ἀμολγέ amolgé	ἀμολγώ amolgṓ	ἀμολγοί amolgoí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

References

“ἀμολγός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ἀμολγός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“ἀμολγός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
ἀμολγός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ἀμολγός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
ἀμολγός in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
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