English
xylon
Xylon comes from Ancient Greek ξύλον ‘cut wood, timber’, and perhaps goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kes- ‘to scrape’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kes-1‘to scrape’uncertain
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ksewlo-1uncertain
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEξύλον2xúlon‘cut wood, timber’
- Englishearliest quotation 2020xylon2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ξύλον, which cites Beekes
- 2 Wiktionary, English xylon
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2020, Roger S. Bagnall, Alexander Jones: “The xylon, in which naubia are measured. The royal…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kes-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ξύλον, which cites Beekes‘to scrape’uncertain
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ksewlo-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek ξύλον, which cites Beekesuncertain
- Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEξύλονWiktionary, English xylonxúlon‘cut wood, timber’
- Englishearliest quotation 2020xylonWiktionary, English xylon. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2020, Roger S. Bagnall, Alexander Jones: “The xylon, in which naubia are measured. The royal…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kes- ‘to scrape’
through Ancient Greek ξύλον ‘cut wood, timber’
Today it means
noun A unit of length in Ancient Greece.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “xylon”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Ancient Greek ξύλον. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kes- / xylon