λαός

• λεώς (leṓs) — Attic
• ληός (lēós), λεώς (leṓs) — Ionic

From Proto-Hellenic *lāwós, with further origin uncertain:

• Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂wos (“people (under arms)”), from *leh₂w- (“military action”);^[1] in this case, cognate with Phrygian λαϝαγταει (lawagtaei, “military leader”), Hittite 𒆷𒄴𒄩𒀸 (laḫḫa-, “campaign”), and Old Irish láech (“warrior”).
• Beekes and Furnee take the word as Pre-Greek, as the related proper noun Λήϊτος (Lḗïtos) is difficult to explain in Indo-European terms.^[2]
  • According to Martin Bernal 2006, echoing a theory of Samuel Bochart in the 17th century, the specific borrowing is Semitic: compare Hebrew לְאֹום (ləʔōm, “people”), Akkadian līm (“many”), the Arabic root ل ء م (l ʔ m), etc.^[3]

λᾱός • (lāós) m (genitive λᾱοῦ); second declension

1. people; people assembled
2. the people of a country
3. the soldiers
4. common people (as opposed to leaders or priests)
5. subjects of a ruler

• Unusually, uncontracted λᾱός (lāós) was not displaced by contracted λεώς (leṓs) in Attic, with both forms seeing use. By the Koine period, the latter was little-used.

• Greek: λαός (laós)
• → Coptic: ⲗⲁⲟⲥ (laos)

• “λαός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “λαός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “λαός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• λαός in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• λαός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “λαός”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G2992 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • commons idem, page 149.
  • people idem, page 604.
• Mallory, J. P., Adams, D. Q., editors (1997), Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 31a

From Ancient Greek λαός (laós).

λαός • (laós) m (plural λαοί)

1. people, the mass of a community as distinguished from a special class (elite); the commonalty; the populace; the vulgar; the common crowd; the citizens.

→ Aromanian: lao