Ancient Greek

Adjective

θῆλῠς • ‎(thêlus) m ‎(feminine θήλειᾰ, neuter θῆλῠ); first/third declension

1. female

   θήλεια θεός‎

   thḗleia theós

   female god (i.e. goddess)

   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.66.2

     Καμβύσεα τὸν Κύρου, [...] ἄπαιδα τὸ παράπαν ἐόντα ἔρσενος καὶ θήλεος γόνου

     [...] Cambyses son of Cyrus, who [...] was altogether childless, without male or female issue.

2. of or belonging to women, womanly, feminine
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 6.122

     ὥς τέ με κουράων ἀμφήλυθε θῆλυς ἀϋτή

     There rang in my ears a womanly cry, as of maidens.

3. soft, gentle
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 5.467

     μή μ᾽ ἄμυδις στίβη τε κακὴ καὶ θῆλυς ἐέρση

     I fear that together the bitter frost and the gentle dew may overcome me.

4. tender, delicate
   • 431 BCE, Euripides, Medea 928

     γυνὴ δὲ θῆλυ κἀπὶ δακρύοις ἔφυ

     But a woman is by nature delicate and prone to tears.

5. female having an internal socket, into which another part fits
   • 100 CE – 200 CE, Pollux, Onomasticon 2.180
   • 93 CE – 94 CE, Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 3.6.3
6. (grammar) feminine
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 682
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Poetics 1458.a.10
7. (mathematics) even
   • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 264.a
   • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 288.d
8. (astrology) negative or feminine sign (one of Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, or Pisces)

Inflection

This is one of the two non-compounded adjectives in -ύς, -εῖα, -ύ, along with ἥμισυς ‎(hḗmisus), that have a recessive accent. See also ἐλαχύς ‎(elakhús), λιγύς ‎(ligús).

Derived terms

Antonyms

• ἄρσην ‎(ársēn)

See also

• Negative sign on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

• θῆλυς in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• θῆλυς in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• θῆλυς in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «θῆλυς» 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
• «θῆλυς» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• θῆλυς in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G2338”, 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.
  • female idem, page 315.
  • feminine idem, page 315.
  • sex idem, page 759.
  • tender idem, page 861.