# ὕλη
## Ancient Greek
### Etymology

Traditionally derived from a Proto-Indo-European *swel-, *sel- (“firewood, wood, beam”), and compared with Latin silva (“forest”), English sill, Latvian sile (“trough”). Beekes rejects this theory, as well as theories connecting the word to ξῠ́λον (xŭ́lon, “wood”), and proposes two derivations, based on the original sense likely being "firewood":
* From a Proto-Indo-European *swol-h₂- (“firewood”), an extension of *swel- (“to smoulder”); compare Proto-Germanic *swelaną (“to burn”), as well as perhaps Proto-Germanic *sūliz (“beam, column”).
* From a Proto-Indo-European *h₁ews-l-h₂ (“firewood”), from *h₁ews- (“to burn, singe”); see there for more.
Possibly related are the Mycenaean Greek names 𐀄𐀨𐀍 (u-ra-jo, “Hulaios”) and 𐀄𐀩𐀄 (u-re-u, “Hul(l)eus”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /hy̌ː.lɛː/ → /ˈy.li/ → /ˈi.li/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /hy̌ː.lɛː/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /ˈ(h)y.le̝/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /ˈy.li/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /ˈy.li/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /ˈi.li/

### Noun

ῡ̔́λη • (hū́lē) f (genitive ῡ̔́λης); first declension
* wood, trees, forest
* timber, firewood
* stuff, material, substance
* matter

#### Derived terms

* Κρᾰτῠ́λος (Krătŭ́los)
* ὑλαῖος (hulaîos)
* ῡ̔λήεις (hūlḗeis)
* ῡ̔λοβάτης (hūlobátēs)

#### Descendants

* → Arabic: هَيُول (hayūl)
* → Christian Palestinian Aramaic: ܗܝܠܐ (/⁠hīlā⁠/)
* → Classical Syriac: ܗܘܠܐ (hūlā), ܗܝܘܠܐ (hiyūlā), ܗܝܠܐ (hīlā)
* → Coptic: ϩⲩⲗⲏ (hulē)
* → English: -yl
* → Greek: ύλη (ýli)
* → Latin: hȳlē
* → Norwegian Bokmål: -yl
* → Old Armenian: հիւղէ (hiwłē)
** Armenian: հյուլե (hyule)
* → Middle English: hyle, yle, ylem
** English: hyle, ylem
* → Classical Persian: هیولی (hayūlē, “element; matter; stuff; substance”)
** Persian: هیولا (hayulâ)
* Translingual: → Hyles, ⇒ Hylesia

### References

* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ὕλη”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 1529-30
* ↑ John Chadwick, Lydia Baumbach (1963) “The Mycenaean Greek Vocabulary”, in Glotta : Zeitschrift für griechische und lateinische Sprache, volume 41, number 3/4, Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (GmbH & Co. KG), →JSTOR, →OCLC, page 252 of 157–271: “ὕλη”

### Further reading

* “ὕλη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “ὕλη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “ὕλη”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
* ὕλη 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
* ὕλη in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
* G5208 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
* Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited. brushwood idem, page 102.forest idem, page 337.fuel idem, page 348.lumber idem, page 504.matter idem, page 518.scrub idem, page 743.undergrowth idem, page 913.underwood idem, page 914.wood idem, page 987.woodland idem, page 987.
* http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/greece-xiv
* “ὕλη”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011