κάλαμος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /ká.la.mos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈka.la.mos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈka.la.mos/^[1]

Forms

κᾰ́λᾰμος (kálamos) m (genitive κᾰλᾰ́μου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an old Indo-European word for reed or straw, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱélh₂m̥ (“reed, straw”).^[1][2] Cognate with Latin culmus (“stalk”), Old High German halm, Old English healm, Old Norse halmr, Old Prussian salme (“straw”), Latvian salms and Russian соло́ма (solóma, “straw”).^[2][1][3][4]

All the other forms can go back to *ḱolh₂-mo-, so the Greek ⟨α⟩ has been explained by vowel assimilation from *κόλαμος (*kólamos).^[2][4][3] Beekes finds this unnecessary: he posits an ablauting m-stem *ḱolh₂-m, *ḱl̥h₂-em-, which each branch thematized separately.^[2] Chantraine notes that Greek has both vocalisms, as in ποταμός (potamós) and θάλαμος (thálamos).^[3]

Theophrastus thought the reed was named for its hollow stem, and the Etymologicum Gudianum explained the name as “well reaped”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first instance is in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, where reeds support the arms of a lyre.^[6][7][2] Homer has the related καλάμη (kalámē) “stalk”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Pindar uses it for the reed pipe, Herodotus for reed thatch, and Thucydides for reed baskets.^[9][6] It named many objects made of reed: a mat in Plato, the aulos and panpipes, a fishing rod, a fowler's limed twig, a pen in Plato and Plutarch, an arrow and a stick.^[6] Theophrastus distinguishes many kinds, among them sweet flag, giant reed and bamboo.^[9] In the New Testament it is the reed shaken by the wind, the staff in the Passion narrative, a measuring rod in Revelation and a reed pen.^[10]

Latin borrowed it as calamus.^[11] According to Beekes, Sanskrit and Arabic words for the writing reed also come from it, and the Arabic word returned through Ottoman Turkish as Modern Greek καλέμι (kalémi).^[2] Coptic borrowed it too, with records from about AD 500.^[12] Modern Greek keeps the learned κάλαμος, which also means a pen after French plume, and the everyday καλάμι (kalámi), from the Hellenistic diminutive καλάμιον (kalámion).^[13][8]

Timeline

• Homeric Hymns – The Hymn to Hermes has reeds supporting the arms of a lyre.^[6][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for the reed pipe.^[9][6][14]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for reed thatch.^[9][6][14]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for a reed pen.^[6][14]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes many kinds of reed, among them bamboo.^[9][14]
• About AD 500 – The Coptic borrowing is first recorded.^[12]
• Modern Greek – The everyday word is Modern Greek καλάμι (kalámi).^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A reed, as a growing plant, and collectively reeds.^[9][6]
2. Reed as material for roofs, mats, baskets, wreaths, bedding and fuel.^[9][6]
3. A reed pipe: the aulos or the panpipes.^[9][6]
4. A fishing rod, or a fowler's limed twig.^[6]
5. A reed pen.^[6][10]
6. A stick or staff, and a measuring rod.^[6][10]
7. An arrow.^[6]
8. A stalk of wheat.^[6]
9. (botany) Various reed-like plants: sweet flag, giant reed, bamboo.^[9]

Word family

• καλάμινος (kaláminos)
• καλαμίσκος (kalamískos)
• καλαμάγρωστις (kalamágrōstis)
• καλαμίς (kalamís)
• καλαμογραφία (kalamographíā)
• καλαμοθήκη (kalamothḗkē)

Related words

• καλάμη (kalámē)
• Latin calamus
• Latin culmus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
12. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
13. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge