ἆθλον

• ἄεθλον (áethlon) — Epic, uncontracted

From an earlier *ἄϝεθλον (*áwethlon), traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow (of wind)”) + *-dʰlom (forms nouns denoting tool or instrument), as if "gasp, pant, wheeze", if not from a similar root meaning "to strive". (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Other theories compare the word to Sanskrit वायति (vāyati, “to be tired”), the latter from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to leave, abandon”).

However, Beekes dismisses the connection with the Sanskrit and does not mention the *h₂weh₁- derivation, instead deriving the Greek from a Proto-Indo-European *h₂wedʰ- (“to contest, compete”), albeit with no known cognates outside of Greek.^[1]

ἆθλον • (âthlon) n (genitive ἄθλου); second declension (Attic, contracted)

1. prize of a contest
2. contest
3. place of combat, arena

• ἀθλέω (athléō)
• πέντᾱθλον (péntāthlon)

• ἆθλος (âthlos)

ἆθλον • (âthlon)

1. accusative singular of ἆθλος (âthlos)

• “ἆθλον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἆθλον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ἆθλον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἆθλον in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • prize idem, page 642.
  • reward idem, page 711.
• Clackson, James, Indo-European Word Formation: Proceedings from the International Conference, 2002
• Julius Pokorny (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, in 3 vols, Bern, München: Francke Verlag