παλλακή

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• παλλακίς (pallakís)

Etymology

The word may well be Pre-Greek, in view of the suffix "-ακ-". Similarly, Levin regards Latin paelex (“mistress”) as a loanword from a Mediterranean language, maybe a Semitic one, in view of Hebrew פִּילֶגֶשׁ (pilegesh, “concubine”). Other connections that have been proposed include Middle Irish airech (“concubine, wanton woman”), Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌𐬐𐬁 (paⁱrikā, “beautiful women seducing pious men”), Middle Persian [Term?] (/⁠parīg⁠/), Khotanese 𑀧𑀮𑀻𑀓𑀸 (palīkā), and Old Armenian պարիկ (parik), all of which Beekes dismisses for formal or semantic reasons.^[1]

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pal.la.kɛ̌ː/ → /pal.laˈci/ → /pa.laˈci/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pal.la.kɛ̌ː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /pal.laˈke̝/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /pal.laˈci/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /pal.laˈci/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /pa.laˈci/

Noun

παλλᾰκή • (pallakḗ) f (genitive παλλᾰκῆς); first declension

1. concubine, young girl

Inflection

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ παλλᾰκή hē pallakḗ	τὼ παλλᾰκᾱ́ tṑ pallakā́	αἱ παλλᾰκαί hai pallakaí
Genitive	τῆς παλλᾰκῆς tês pallakês	τοῖν παλλᾰκαῖν toîn pallakaîn	τῶν παλλᾰκῶν tôn pallakôn
Dative	τῇ παλλᾰκῇ têi pallakêi	τοῖν παλλᾰκαῖν toîn pallakaîn	ταῖς παλλᾰκαῖς taîs pallakaîs
Accusative	τὴν παλλᾰκήν tḕn pallakḗn	τὼ παλλᾰκᾱ́ tṑ pallakā́	τᾱ̀ς παλλᾰκᾱ́ς tā̀s pallakā́s
Vocative	παλλᾰκή pallakḗ	παλλᾰκᾱ́ pallakā́	παλλᾰκαί pallakaí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

First declension of ἡ παλλᾰκή; τῆς παλλᾰκῆς (Attic)

Derived terms

• παλλακεία (pallakeía)
• παλλακεύω (pallakeúō)
• παλλακίδιον (pallakídion)
• παλλακῖνος (pallakînos)
• παλλάκιον (pallákion)
• παλλακός (pallakós)

 

Related terms

• πάλλαξ (pállax, “youth”)

 

Descendants

• → Latin: pallaca

References

1. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “παλλακή”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1147

Further reading

• “παλλακή”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• παλλακή in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “παλλακή”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, 2011