βάλλις

• βάλῐς (bálĭs)

Depending on the exact medicinal properties possibly related to βᾰ́λλω (bắllō, “to throw; to strike; to tumble”). In Dioskurides it is given as another name of the squirting cucumber. Depending on the exterior appearance it can also be from βαλιός (baliós, “spotted, dappled”), itself suspected to be from Thracian, Illyrian, or Pre-Greek origin. According to Beekes, it's together with βαλαύστιον (balaústion, “flower of the pomegranate”), βάλαρις (bálaris, “uncertain plant”) and βαλλωτή (ballōtḗ, “black horehound”) from Pre-Greek.

βᾰ́λλῐς • (bắllĭs) f (genitive βᾰ́λλεως or βᾰ́λλῐθος); third declension

1. a plant with wonderful medicinal properties
   • Xanth. 16
   • Xanth. 3
   • 'c. 4th-6th centuries AD, Pseudo-Arcadius, Epitome of Herodian's 'De Prosodia Catholica 30.14
   • Etymologicum Magnum 186.33.G.
   • TheodGramm 94.17

• “βάλλις”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• βάλλις in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2026)
• βάλλις in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007), Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• 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, →ISBN
• Frisk, Hjalmar (1960), “βάλλις”, in Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume I, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, page 215
• “σίκυς ἄγριος – Ecballium elaterium”, in Dioscórides Interactivo‎^[1] (in Spanish), 2026