κάππαρις

Forms

κάππαρις (kápparis) f (genitive καππάρεως); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] Beekes classes it as a loanword from the East: Berger compared Persian کبر (kabar, “caper”) and the Burushaski word for the caper, which would point to a source somewhere in Asia.^[4][1] Chantraine records that the word survives in Modern Greek and that a personal name Κάππαρις is found at Stratonicea in Caria.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the Hippocratic writings of the 5th century BC, where the caper is used in remedies.^[6][7][8] Aristotle and the comic poets Antiphanes, Timocles and Alexis mention it soon after.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the caper plant, Capparis spinosa, which Theophrastus describes, and its fruit, the caper.^[6][4] Chantraine records it in comedy and in the papyri.^[6][4] Small derivatives followed: the diminutive καππάριον (kappárion), found in comedy and the papyri, and κάππαρος (kápparos), a fish named in a papyrus of the 3rd century BC, probably after the way it was prepared.^[4][5][2] In the Septuagint the caper appears once, in Ecclesiastes.^[9][6] Dioscorides identified with the caper the plant called ἱππομανής (hippomanḗs), which was said to drive mares mad in Arcadia.^[10]

Latin borrowed the word as Latin capparis.^[11] Coptic took it over as well, in Sahidic manuscripts from about AD 800.^[12] In medieval vernacular Greek the noun was remodelled as κάππαρη (káppari), used by Ptochoprodromos, and this form lives on in κάππαρη (káppari), the pickled caper.^[13][14][15]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it of the caper in remedies.^[6][7][15]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle and the comic poet Antiphanes mention the caper.^[6]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus describes the caper plant.^[6]
• 3rd century BC – A Zenon papyrus records the caper, and another names a fish κάππαρος (kápparos) after it.^[6][4]
• 2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it in Ecclesiastes.^[9][7]
• 1st century AD – Dioscorides discusses the plant and its medicinal uses.^[6][7]
• About AD 800 – Coptic manuscripts record the borrowed word.^[12]
• 12th century – Ptochoprodromos uses the remodelled form κάππαρη (káppari).^[13]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as κάππαρη (káppari), the caper.^[14][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The caper plant, Capparis spinosa.^[6][4][16]
2. Its fruit, the caper.^[6][5]

Related words

• καππάριον (kappárion)
• κάππαρος (kápparos)
• Latin capparis

Usage notes

Athenaeus reports, from Empedus, that Zeno the Stoic used to swear “by the caper”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d 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
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 Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
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. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
14. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
15. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
16. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli