ἔλαιον

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *élaiwon. Compare ἐλαία (elaía, “olive”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /é.lai̯.on/ → /ˈe.lɛ.on/ → /ˈe.le.on/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /é.lai̯.on/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈe.lɛ.on/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈe.lɛ.on/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈe.le.on/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈe.le.on/

Noun

ἔλαιον • (élaion) n (genitive ἐλαίου); second declension

1. olive oil, commonly used as an anointing oil
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 10.577:

     τὼ δὲ λοεσσαμένω καὶ ἀλειψαμένω λίπ’ ἐλαίῳ / δείπνῳ ἐφιζανέτην, […]

     tṑ dè loessaménō kaì aleipsaménō líp’ elaíōi / deípnōi ephizanétēn, […]

     • 1924 translation by A. T. Murray

       But when the twain had bathed and anointed them richly with oil, they sate them down at supper, […]

2. any oily substance
   • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates of Kos, Τοῦ μεγάλου Ἱπποκράτους πάντων τῶν ἰατρῶν κορυφαίου τὰ εὑρισκόμενα. Magni Hippocratis medicorum omnium facile principis, opera omnia quæ extant. 668.30
3. (at Athens) the oil market
   • 342 BCE – 290 BCE, Menander, Unknown Work 339

Inflection

Second declension of τὸ ἔλαιον; τοῦ ἐλαίου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ ἔλαιον tò élaion	τὼ ἐλαίω tṑ elaíō	τᾰ̀ ἔλαιᾰ tằ élaiă
Genitive	τοῦ ἐλαίου toû elaíou	τοῖν ἐλαίοιν toîn elaíoin	τῶν ἐλαίων tôn elaíōn
Dative	τῷ ἐλαίῳ tôi elaíōi	τοῖν ἐλαίοιν toîn elaíoin	τοῖς ἐλαίοις toîs elaíois
Accusative	τὸ ἔλαιον tò élaion	τὼ ἐλαίω tṑ elaíō	τᾰ̀ ἔλαιᾰ tằ élaiă
Vocative	ἔλαιον élaion	ἐλαίω elaíō	ἔλαιᾰ élaiă
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• γᾰρέλαιον (gărélaion)
• ἐλαιόγᾰρον (elaiógăron)
• ἐλαιοπώλης (elaiopṓlēs)
• σχῑνέλαιον (skhīnélaion)
• ὑδρέλαιον (hudrélaion)

Related terms

• ἐλαία (elaía)

Descendants

• Greek: λάδι n (ládi)
• Mariupol Greek: ладъ (lað)
• → Proto-Albanian: *elaiwā
  • Albanian: lyej
• → Latin: oleum (see there for further descendants)
• →? Proto-Slavic: *olějь (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “ἔλαιον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἔλαιον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ἔλαιον”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἔλαιον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἔλαιον in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ἔλαιον in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2025)
• “ἔλαιον”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G1637 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• ἔλαιον in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • grease idem, page 371.
  • oil idem, page 572.
  • olive oil idem, page 572.
• “oil”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.