φολίς

An o-grade term of unclear origin. Frisk derives the term from the same hypothetical root as φελλός (phellós, “cork”), though Beekes is skeptical of this and prefers Pre-Greek origin.^[1]

φολῐ́ς • (pholĭ́s) f (genitive φολῐ́δος); third declension

1. (of reptiles) horny scale (opposed to λεπίς (lepís), used of fish’s scales)
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, History of Animals 490B.22
   • 350 BCE, Aristotle, Parts of Animals 691A.16
   • 300 BCE – 250 BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 1.221
   • Pseudo-Oppian, Cynegetica 3.438
   • c. 250 BCE – 170 BCE, Nicander, Theriaca 257
   • 36 BCE – 30 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 17.105
   • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates of Kos, On Vision 6
2. spot on a panther’s or leopard’s skin
   • 200 CE – 400 CE, Heliodorus of Emesa, Aethiopica 10.27
3. (in the phrase φολὶς λιθοκόλλητος) a ceiling in mosaic work
   • 36 BCE – 30 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 18.26
4. a bandage
   • 320 CE – 403 CE, Oribasius, Collected Works 48.20.11

• φολιδοῦσθαι (pholidoûsthai) (Koine)

• Arabic: فَلْس (fals)
• English: pholidolite, pholidosis
• French: pholérite
  • → English: pholerite
• Greek: φολίδα (folída)

• “φολίς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• φολίς in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• φολίς, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011