“Tele” Compound Words

Greek Learning Greek
1

Way back when I had been taught that words like “teleology” derive from τέλος and λόγος, which made sense at the time, but then I had also extrapolated from this that other “tele” compounds must share a similar story. But when I actually did look up words such as “telephone,” “telescope,” “telegram,” and so on, I read that they derive not from τέλος per se but rather from the adverb τῆλε (far away), which is in all likelihood a cognate word.

I have two questions here. First, I have come across τέλος quite a few times already, both as a noun and as an adverb, but have never stumbled upon τῆλε. Is the latter a common adverb in Attic?

Second, are there any “tele” compounds in Ancient Greek itself, or are they all future inventions. In other words, just as ἐντελής derives from τέλος, are there Ancient Greek compounds partly deriving from τῆλε?

2

τῆλε cf. Lith. tilì? adv. and prep. ⓐ adv. far, distant IL. 17.190, al. OD. 2.183, al.; τῆλε δὲ χαλκὸς λάμπε the bronze flashed far and wide IL. 10.153; μάλα τῆλε very far HES. Th. 1015 ‖ far from :play_button: with ἀπό and gen. IL. 23.280, 16.117 | :play_button: with ἐκ and gen. IL. 2.863 ⓑ prep. :play_button: with gen. IL. 11.817, 16.539; τῆλε δʼ ἀπεπλάγχθη σάκεος δόρυ and the spear rebounded far from the shield IL. 22.291; τῆλε φίλων ἀπόληται he died far from his friends OD. 2.333 | > only epic> .

Montanari, F. (2015). M. Goh & C. Schroeder (Eds.), The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek. Leiden; Boston: Brill.



τῆλε [adv., prep.] ‘in the distance, far away’ (Il., epic). «IE *kwel- ‘far’»

• COMP Very often as a first member, e.g. τηλε-κλειτός ‘far-famed’ (epic Il.), PN Τηλέ-μαχος originally “fighting from afar” (opposite ἀγχέ-μαχος; also Arc. Τηλί-μαχος after ἀγχί-μαχος).

• DER Adverbs τηλ-οῦ, -όθι ‘id.’, -όθε(ν) ‘from, in the distance’, -όσε ‘in the distance, far away’; also τηλε-δαπός ‘from a far country, far off, distant’ after ποδ-απός, ἀλλοδαπός, etc. (all Il., epic); unclear is τήλεμος (Theognost. Can.), perhaps after τῆμος, ἦμος? Comparative forms τηλο-τάτω (Od.), -τέρω (Hp., Arat.), -τερος (AP), τήλιστα (Orph.; nonce formation after ἄγχιστα). Further Aeol. πήλυι (-οι) [loc.] = τῆλε, τηλοῦ, with Boeot. Πειλε-στροτίδας PN.

• ETYM Harðarson KZ 108 (1995): 205f. proposed that it is a locative *kwēlh1- from the root of :play_button:πέλομαι. It is doubtful, however, that the word contained a laryngeal. For the semantics, cf. τέλος ‘end, goal, etc.’ > from the same root> .

Beekes, R. (2010). A. Lubotsky (Ed.), Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Vol. 1 & 2, pp. 1477–1478). Leiden; Boston: Brill.

3

Thanks for the information Barry. I still wonder, though, whether this was a common word in Attic Greek, especially considering the very many English words that derive from it.

4

The adverb τῆλε itself is mainly found in epic. I’m guessing the one use of the compound τηλεσκόπος in Aristophanes’ Clouds 290 is the source of all the modern compound words.

According to Wiktionary the modern use was:

Coined in 1611 by the Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani for one of Galileo Galilei’s instruments presented at a banquet at the Accademia dei Lincei.