φαλλός

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Uncertain. The meaning "penis" likely developed from a more concrete meaning, and has been compared to βαλλία (ballía, “private parts”) and the ethnonym Τριβαλλοί (Triballoí). Possible Indo-European cognates are Old Irish ball (“member, body part”) as well as dialectal German Bille (“penis”), all usually compared to words for "ball, sack, bull, testis" and similar, supposedly deriving from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow, swell”) (id est: *bʰl̥nós > *pʰəlnós > *pʰəllós). Probably akin to φάλλαινα (phállaina, “whale”), because of the body shape of whales.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pʰal.lós/ → /ɸalˈlos/ → /faˈlos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pʰal.lós/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /pʰalˈlos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ɸalˈlos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /falˈlos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /faˈlos/

Noun

φαλλός • (phallós) m (genitive φαλλοῦ); second declension

1. penis; phallus

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ φαλλός; τοῦ φαλλοῦ (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ φαλλός ho phallós	τὼ φαλλώ tṑ phallṓ	οἱ φαλλοί hoi phalloí
Genitive	τοῦ φαλλοῦ toû phalloû	τοῖν φαλλοῖν toîn phalloîn	τῶν φαλλῶν tôn phallôn
Dative	τῷ φαλλῷ tôi phallôi	τοῖν φαλλοῖν toîn phalloîn	τοῖς φαλλοῖς toîs phalloîs
Accusative	τὸν φαλλόν tòn phallón	τὼ φαλλώ tṑ phallṓ	τοὺς φαλλούς toùs phalloús
Vocative	φαλλέ phallé	φαλλώ phallṓ	φαλλοί phalloí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Synonyms

• (phallus): βαλλίον (ballíon)

Descendants

• → Old Armenian: փաղղոս (pʻałłos)
• → Latin: phallus
  • Asturian: falu
  • Catalan: fal·lus
  • → Czech: falus
  • → Dutch: fallus
  • → English: phallus
  • → French: phallus
  • Galician: falo
  • → German: Phallus
  • Italian: fallo
  • → Occitan: fallus
  • → Polish: fallus
  • → Portuguese: falo
  • Romanian: falus (possibly via French)
  • → Russian: фа́ллус (fállus), фалл (fall)
  • → Serbo-Croatian: falus, фалус
  • Sicilian: fallu
  • Spanish: falo
  • → Turkish: fallus
• Greek: φαλλός (fallós)
• → Danish: fallos
• → Estonian: fallos
• → Finnish: fallos
• → Norwegian: fallos
• → Russian: фа́ллос (fállos)
• → Swedish: fallos
• →? Albanian: pallë

References

• “φαλλός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “φαλλός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• φαλλός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume II, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1550

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [faˈlɔs]

Noun

φαλλός • (fallós) m (plural φαλλοί)

1. (anatomy) phallus

Declension

Declension of φαλλός

	singular	plural
nominative	φαλλός (fallós)	φαλλοί (falloí)
genitive	φαλλού (falloú)	φαλλών (fallón)
accusative	φαλλό (falló)	φαλλούς (falloús)
vocative	φαλλέ (fallé)	φαλλοί (falloí)

Synonyms

• πέος (péos)

Derived terms

• φαλλικός (fallikós)

Further reading

• φαλλός on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el