πόλις

πόλις

Grammatical information: f.

Meaning: `citadel, fort, city, city community, state' (Il.; on the meaning in Hom. Hoffmann Festschr. Snell 153ff.).

Other forms: Also (ep. Cypr. Thess.) πτόλις, -εως, Ion. -ιος, -ηος;

Dialectal forms: Myc. potorijo has been interpreted as *Πτολίων.

Compounds: As 1. member e.g. in πτολί-πορθος (-πόρθιος, -πόρθης) `sacking cities, destroyer of cities' (ep. Il.); enlarged in IA. πολιοῦχος (from -ιο-ουχ.); Dor. πολι-ά̄-οχος, -ιᾶχος, ep. πολι-ή-οχος `ruling a city, city protector'; in A. also the unexplained πολισσο- in πολισσοῦχος, πολισσο-νομέω. Very often as 2. member, e.g. ἀκρο-πολις = πόλις ἄκρη `upper town, citadel' (Od.); on this and on the other compp. Risch IF 59, 261 ff.

Derivatives: 1. expressive enlargement πτολί-εθρον n. (ep. Il.); cf. μέλαθρον, θέμεθλα, ἔδεθλον (Schwyzer 533). 2. Diminut. πολίχνη f., often as PlN (IA.) with -ίχνιον (Att.); πολίδιον (ῑ̆) n. (Str.). 3. Πολιεύς (-ηύς) m. `city guardian' (Thera before V<sup>a</sup>, Arist., hell.; Bosshardt 60); f. Πολιάς (IA., Arg.). 4. πολίτης (ῑ; ep., Sapph., Att.), πολι-ά̄-τας, -ή-της (Dor. Aeol., Β 806, Ion.; after οἰκιά-τας, -ιή-της a.o.) m. `citizen, townsman', f. -ῖτις (S., E., Pl.); from this πολιτ-ικός `civic, political' (Hdt. 7, 103, Att.; Chantraine Études 123); -εύομαι, -εύω `to be citizen, to take part in state affairs' (Att. etc.; πολιατεύω Gortyn) with -εία, Ion. -ηίη, -ευμα (Hdt., Att.; on the meaning Wilhelm Glotta 14, 78ff., 83f., Papazoglou REGr. 72, 100ff. resp. Ruppel Phil. 82, 268ff., Engers Mnem. 54, 154ff.); also πολιτισμός `administration' (D. L.; -ισμός analog., Chantraine Form. 143). 5. Denominat. πολίζω, aor. -ίσ(σ)αι, rare a. late with ἐν-, συν- a.o., `to found (a city), to cultivate a place by founding a city' (ep. Ion., X.) with πόλ-ισμα `foundation (of a city)' (Ion. poet., Th.; Chantraine Form. 189), -ισμάτιον (hell.), -ισμός `foundation of a city' (D. H., Lyd.), -ιστής `founder of a city' (Poll. 9, 6; rejected).

Origin: IE [Indo-European] [799] *pelH- `fortification' from *pelH- `pout'?

Etymology: The byform πτόλις (also Arc. Πτόλις, name of the castle in Mantinea; Thess. οἱ ττολίαρχοι w. assim.) is not convincingly explained. Hypotheses w. further details in Schwyzer 325 (w. lit.); further Kretschmer Glotta 22, 206, Deroy Ant. class. 23, 305ff., Merlingen Μνήμης χάριν 2, 57, Ruijgh L'élém. ach. 75ff., 112 n. 4 (cf. also on πτόλεμος). To be rejected the identification of πόλις from *pu̯olis with Arm. k'alak` `town' (Winter Lang. 31,8).-- Old word for `castle, refugecastle', except in Greek further only in the east attested (cf. Kretschmer Glotta 22, 107, Porzig Gliederung 173): Skt. pū́r f., acc. púr-am, Lith. pilìs f. Both the Skt. and the Lith. word show zero grade, which has also been considered possible for πόλις (Schwyzer 344); the i-stem in πόλ-ις and pil-ìs is secondary enlargement. Thee repeated proposals, to connect this very ancient word for `citadel' with the verb for `fill' (πίμπλημι; since Pott) or for `dump' (Lith. pìlti; Fick; lastly Fraenkel Zeitschr. slav. Phil. 6, 91), has as unproven hypothesis not much interest. -- WP. 2, 51, Pok. 799, Mayrhofer and Fraenkel s. vv. w. further details a. lit.

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