κάλαθος

Forms

κᾰ́λᾰθος (kálathos) m (genitive κᾰλᾰ́θου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it probably Pre-Greek: its ending recalls other names of vessels and baskets, γυργαθός (gurgathós), κύαθος (kúathos) and ὁρμαθός (hormathós).^[2][1] De Saussure connected it with κλώθω (klṓthō, “to spin”), which Beekes calls formally impossible;^[2] Chantraine, following Bechtel, thinks that here the /tʰ/ does belong to the root, as in that verb.^[3]

Semitic sources have been proposed, a root meaning “to plait” and Akkadian ḫallatu (“a kind of basket”), but Rosół rejects them.^[4] He finds a good match in Egyptian krḥt (“basket for fruit”);^[4] Wiktionary considers this unlikely because of the shape of the containers and the sounds.^[1]

Latin calathus was borrowed from it.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aristophanes' Birds, of a basket narrow at the base.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

The basket was used especially for wool, and for fruit;^[6][3] Callimachus describes it carried in a procession for Demeter.^[6][7] Its compound καλαθηφόρος (kalathēphóros), a woman who carried the basket, was already the title of a comedy by Eubulus.^[3]

From its shape the word named other things: the bell of a column capital in Callixenus, a wine-cooler and a mould for casting iron in Hesychius, and the oil reservoir of a lamp in Hero.^[6][3] In Modern Greek κάλαθος (kálathos) is a learned word: in architecture the bell of the Corinthian capital, and, after French corbeille, a basket, above all the wastepaper basket; to throw something “into the basket of useless things” is to discard it.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for a basket.^[6][7][8]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for a fruit basket.^[6]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus describes the basket carried for Demeter.^[6][7]
• 2nd century BC – Callixenus uses it for the capital of a column.^[6]
• Modern Greek – The learned κάλαθος (kálathos) means a basket, especially for wastepaper.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A basket narrow at the base and wide at the top, especially for wool or fruit, and carried in rites of Demeter.^[6][7][3]
2. (architecture) The bell of a column capital.^[6]
3. A wine-cooler, the same as a ψυκτήρ (psuktḗr).^[6][10]
4. A mould for casting iron.^[6][10]
5. The reservoir of an oil lamp.^[6]

Word family

• καλαθίσκος (kalathískos)
• καλαθηφόρος (kalathēphóros)
• καλάθωσις (kaláthōsis)

Related words

• Latin calathus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
4. ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)