κάρα

Forms

κᾰ́ρᾱ (kárā) n (genitive κᾰ́ρᾱτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kárahə,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱr̥h₂-(e)s-n- (“top of the head, skull”), from the root *ḱerh₂- (“head, horn”).^[1][2] It belongs to an old s-stem: Frisk explains the Homeric oblique forms such as κράατος (kráatos) from *κράσατος (krásatos), and the plural κάρηνα (kárēna, “heads, mountain tops”) from *καρασνα (karasna), which Beekes derives from *ḱrh₂-es-n-h₂.^[3][2] The same formation is continued in Old High German hirni (“brain”) and probably in Latin cerebrum (“brain”).^[2][4] Related Greek words are κρανίον (kraníon, “skull”) and κέρας (kéras, “horn”).^[2][4]

Ancient writers derived it from κείρω (keírō, “to shear”), because the head is the hairy part that is shorn, or, with Herodian, from a shortening of κάρηνον (kárēnon, “summit”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Mycenaean tablet from Pylos has the instrumental plural ka-ra-a-pi, read as “(decorated) with heads”, beside qo-u-ka-ra-a-pi, “with ox heads”.^[6][4] In Homer it is the head of a man or an animal: Priam's grey head and grey beard in the Iliad (22.74), and a horse holding its head high (6.509).^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Homer has the Epic and Ionic form κάρη (kárē), with the oblique stems κάρητος (kárētos) and καρήατος (karḗatos); later poets inflected κάρη as a first-declension feminine.^[7][8][3] The word stayed poetic: Lucian lists it as a poetic word for κεφαλή (kephalḗ).^[7] Hesiod uses it of the peak of snowy Olympus, Sophocles of the top of a tree, Eubulus of the brim of a cup.^[7][8]

In tragedy it served in solemn periphrases for a person: Sophocles' Oedipus is addressed as “head of Oedipus”, and Antigone calls Ismene her “own sister's head”.^[7][8] The head was also that on which punishment falls and by which one swears.^[8]

Hellenistic Greek used ἡ κάρα as a feminine; from it Modern Greek has the learned κάρα (kára),^[9] which Babiniotis glosses as the head of a saint kept as a relic.^[4]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – A Pylos tablet has ka-ra-a-pi, “with heads”.^[6]
• Homer – The Iliad uses κάρη for the head of men and horses.^[7][10]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of the peak of Olympus.^[7][11]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it in periphrases for a person.^[7][8][11]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian lists it as a poetic word for κεφαλή.^[7][11]
• Modern Greek – κάρα survives as a learned word for a saint's head kept as a relic.^[9][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The head of a person, god or animal.^[7][8]
2. (poetic) The face.^[7]
3. The peak of a mountain, the top of a tree; the brim of a cup.^[7][8]
4. (tragedy) With a genitive or an adjective, a solemn way of naming or addressing a person.^[7][8]

Word family

• κάρανον (káranon)
• καρατόμος (karatómos)
• κάρηνον (kárēnon)

Related words

• κόρρη (kórrē)
• κόρση (kórsē)
• κρανίον (krāníon)
• κράς (krás)
• κρόταφος (krótaphos)

Usage notes

LSJ records a separate κάρα, a feminine noun meaning a tame goat in Cretan, known only from Hesychius, who also gives it the senses “fig tree” and, in Ionic, “sheep”;^[12] Beekes and Chantraine find the gloss partly corrupt but compare the Cretan καρανώ (karanṓ, “goat”).^{[7][12][2][13]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
13. ^ 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