κάθοδος

Forms

κᾰ́θοδος (káthodos) f (genitive κᾰθόδου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “down”) + ὁδός (hodós, “way, road”).^[1][2] The same pattern gives ἄνοδος (ánodos), μέθοδος (méthodos) and σύνοδος (súnodos).^[2] The Ionic form is κάτοδος (kátodos), without aspiration.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its earliest use is in Anacreon (6th century BC), of a journey down to Hades.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 5th century BC its main sense was “coming back”, above all the return of an exile to his city, which is frequent in Herodotus, Thucydides and the orators.^[4][3] The sense “going down” continued: the descent of Demeter, enacted in the mysteries, the way down from a hill, and the passage of food down the throat in Aristotle.^[3][4] A papyrus of the 3rd century AD uses it for a journey down the Nile.^[3] In the Septuagint the plural means “times, recurrences”, as in “a thousand years twice over”.^[3]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept the word.^[5] Modern Greek κάθοδος (káthodos) means “descent”, and as a separate learned word the negative electrode, a sense taken from French cathode.^[6] The English cathode was proposed by William Whewell and published by Michael Faraday in 1834, after the path the electric current was supposed to take.^[7]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Anacreon uses it of a descent to Hades.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it of the return of exiles, and Euripides of a homecoming.^[3][4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the passage of food downwards.^[3]
• 3rd century BC – Herodas uses it of the descent of Demeter as enacted in the mysteries.^[3]
• 2nd century AD – Arrian uses it of the way down to the sea.^[3]
• 3rd century AD – A papyrus from Oxyrhynchus uses it of a journey down the Nile.^[3]
• 1834 – The English word cathode is coined from it.^[7]
• Modern Greek – κάθοδος (káthodos) means descent, and in physics the cathode.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A going down, descent, as to Hades or from a hill; the way down.^[4][3]
2. A journey down to the sea, or down the Nile.^[3]
3. A coming back, return, especially of an exile to his country.^[4][3]
4. (Septuagint) A recurrence, a time, as in “three times”.^[3]
5. (astronomy) The declination of a planet.^[3]

Related words

• ὁδός (hodós)
• ἄνοδος (ánodos)
• English cathode

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
6. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com