Etymology

boukólos rule

Today it means: A rule of the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed language that states that a labiovelar stop (*kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ) dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop (*k, *g, *gʰ) next to the vowel *u or its corresponding glide *w. Full definition →

Ancient Greek βουκόλος ← Proto-Indo-European *gʷow-kólos
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gʷow-kólos
  2. Ancient Greek · borrowed fromβουκόλος“cowherd”
  3. English todayboukólos rule

The rule is named after an example of such a dissimilation: the Ancient Greek βουκόλος (boukólos, “cowherd”), which is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷow-kólos, from *gʷṓws (“cow”) + *kʷól-os (“herder”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.