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

(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 • (pallăkḗ) f (genitive παλλᾰκῆς); first declension

concubine, young girl

Inflection

First declension of ἡ παλλᾰκή; τῆς παλλᾰκῆς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ παλλᾰκή hē pallăkḗ	τὼ παλλᾰκᾱ́ tṑ pallăkā́	αἱ παλλᾰκαί hai pallăkaí
Genitive	τῆς παλλᾰκῆς tês pallăkês	τοῖν παλλᾰκαῖν toîn pallăkaîn	τῶν παλλᾰκῶν tôn pallăkôn
Dative	τῇ παλλᾰκῇ tēî pallăkēî	τοῖν παλλᾰκαῖν toîn pallăkaîn	ταῖς παλλᾰκαῖς taîs pallăkaîs
Accusative	τὴν παλλᾰκήν tḕn pallăkḗn	τὼ παλλᾰκᾱ́ tṑ pallăkā́	τᾱ̀ς παλλᾰκᾱ́ς tā̀s pallăkā́s
Vocative	παλλᾰκή pallăkḗ	παλλᾰκᾱ́ pallăkā́	παλλᾰκαί pallăkaí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

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

Related terms

πάλλαξ (pállax, “youth”)

Descendants

→ Latin: pallaca

References

^ 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