κάππα

Forms

κάππα (káppa) n (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Phoenician 𐤊 (k), the Semitic name of the eleventh letter of the alphabet.^[1][2][3] Beekes and Frisk compare Biblical Hebrew כַּף (kap̄).^[2][4] Babiniotis takes the name as the North Semitic word for the palm of the hand, as the shape of the letter in archaic inscriptions also shows.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the comic poet Callias (5th century BC), quoted by Athenaeus, as the name of the letter κ.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Aristophanes, Polybius and Plutarch use the name of the letter, and Plato's Cratylus discusses its sound.^[3][7] It was the eleventh letter in the old Greek alphabet and the tenth later, and as a numeral it stood for twenty.^[8]

Medieval vernacular Greek made it feminine.^[9] Modern Greek κάππα (kápa) keeps the name; school grammar writes it with a single π, but since the word has come down from antiquity with two, Babiniotis takes κάππα as the correct spelling.^[5]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The comic poet Callias uses the letter name.^[2][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it, and Plato discusses the sound of the letter.^[3][7][6]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it.^[3][6]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it.^[3][6]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it as a feminine noun.^[9]
• Modern Greek – κάππα (kápa) names the tenth letter of the alphabet.^[5][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. Kappa, the tenth (originally eleventh) letter of the Greek alphabet (Κ, κ).^[8][3][2]
2. As a numeral, twenty.^[8]

Related words

• ἄλφα (álpha)
• βῆτα (bêta)
• ἦτα (êta)

Usage notes

Zonaras records an ancient explanation that the letter was the invention of a certain Capius.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
11. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius