βοῦς

• βῶς (bôs) — Doric

From Proto-Hellenic *gʷous (compare Mycenaean Greek 𐀦𐀃 (qo-o)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws. Cognates include Old English cū (English cow), Irish bó, Latin bōs, and Sanskrit गो (gó).

βοῦς • (boûs) m or f (genitive βοός); third declension

1. cow, ox, cattle
2. shield
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 7.238–239:

     οἶδ’ ἐπὶ δεξιά, οἶδ’ ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ νωμῆσαι βῶν
     ἀζαλέην, τό μοι ἔστι ταλαύρινον πολεμίζειν·

     oîd’ epì dexiá, oîd’ ep’ aristerà nōmêsai bôn
     azaléēn, tó moi ésti talaúrinon polemízein;

     I know on the right, and I know on the left how to wield my dried
     shield, which to me seems sturdy in fighting:

• The sense 'shield' is explained in a scholium to Iliad 7.238[1] as follows:

  c. 900 CE – 1000, Venetus A scholium at Iliad 7.238 :

  βοῦν· Δωρικῶς τὴν ἀσπίδα, ὅτι ἐκ βοείων ἐστι δερμάτων συνεκδοχικῶς τὸ ὅπλον

  boûn; Dōrikôs tḕn aspída, hóti ek boeíōn esti dermátōn sunekdokhikôs tò hóplon

  boûn: 'shield' (Doric), because the shield is made from layered bovine skins

(shield): αἰγίς (aigís), ἀσπίδιον (aspídion), ἀσπίς (aspís), βοάγριον (boágrion), κρίγδανον (krígdanon), πέλτη (péltē), ῥῑνός (rhīnós), σάκος (sákos), σκοῦτα (skoûta)

• δᾰμᾰ́λη (damálē, “young cow, heifer”), δᾰμᾰ́λης (damálēs, “young steer”), δᾰ́μᾰλις (dámalis, “young cow, heifer”), μόσχος (móskhos, “young bull or cow”), πόρτις (pórtis), στεῖρα (steîra, “cow that has not produced young”), ταῦρος (taûros, “bull”)

• Greek: βόδι (vódi), βόιδι (vóidi)
• Tsakonian: βου (vou)
• Latin: butyrum
• English: butter, bucolic, hecatomb, boustrophedon, bulimia nervosa
• Translingual: Bucephala

• “βοῦς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “βοῦς”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “βοῦς”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• βοῦς 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
• βοῦς in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• βοῦς in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• “βοῦς”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G1016 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • bull idem, page 103.
  • cow idem, page 180.
  • ox idem, page 587.
• Mycenaean Greek Word List