πύργος

Etymology

The word is first attested in Homer, Iliad 7.206. Believed to be a borrowed word, probably from Urartian [script needed] (burgana, “palace, fortress”); compare also Old Armenian բուրգն (burgn, “pyramid”). Others connect the word to Proto-Indo-European *bʰerǵʰ- (“high”), with cognates including Sanskrit बृहत् (bṛhát, “lofty, high, tall”), Old Armenian բարձր (barjr, “high”) and Old English burg (English borough). Kretschmer suggested a borrowing from Proto-Germanic *burgz (“fortified town, hill-fort”) mediated through some Northern Balkans language (Ancient Macedonian?). For Beekes the abundance of Pre-Greek placenames, like e. g. Πέργαμον (Pérgamon), seems to indicate a Pre-Greek origin.

Pronunciation

Noun

πῠ́ργος • (púrgos) m (genitive πῠ́ργου); second declension

1. tower, watchtower
2. (in the plural) towered wall
3. the part of the house where women live
4. castle, fortress, bulwark
5. (military) division, column

Further reading

• πύργος in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• πύργος in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• πύργος in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• πύργος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• πύργος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• πύργος in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G4444 in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • belfry idem, page 72.
  • bulwark idem, page 103.
  • defence idem, page 204.
  • harbour idem, page 385.
  • keep idem, page 467.
  • pinnacle idem, page 614.
  • protection idem, page 653.
  • refuge idem, page 685.
  • tower idem, page 884.
  • turret idem, page 902.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πύργος (púrgos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpirɣos/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: πύρ‧γος

Noun

πύργος • (pýrgos) m (plural πύργοι)

1. tower

   κεντρικός πύργος ― kentrikós pýrgos ― central tower, castle keep

2. (chess) rook

See also

Chess pieces in Greek · [Term?] (layout · text)
βασιλιάς (vasiliás)	βασίλισσα (vasílissa)	πύργος (pýrgos)	αξιωματικός (axiomatikós), τρελός (trelós)	ίππος (íppos)	στρατιώτης (stratiótis), πιόνι (pióni)