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

 

Noun

φαλλός • (phallósm (genitive φαλλοῦ); second declension

  1. penis; phallus

Inflection

Synonyms

Descendants

  • Old Armenian: փաղղոս (pʻałłos)
  • Latin: phallus
  • Greek: φαλλός (fallós)
  • Danish: fallos
  • Estonian: fallos
  • Finnish: fallos
  • Norwegian: fallos
  • Russian: фа́ллос (fállos)
  • Swedish: fallos
  • ? Albanian: pallë

References

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [faˈlɔs]

Noun

φαλλός • (fallósm (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

Derived terms

Further reading