Etymologically
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κέδρος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ké.dros/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈce.ðros/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈce.ðros/[1]

Forms

κέδρος (kédros) f (genitive κέδρου); second declension[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[2][3] The likeness to the Baltic names of the juniper, such as Lithuanian kadagỹs, is limited to the first syllable, and a further connection with Slavic words for fumes and for burning incense is very hypothetical.[2][3] Endzelin compared Latvian cedriņš (“heather”).[3][4] According to Fohalle, a Mediterranean word for the cedar, also behind Latin citrus, was adapted to a native Greek word for the juniper, but Beekes and Frisk doubt this.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Odyssey first has it: the smell of burning cedar and thuja spreads over the island.[5][6] LSJ takes the tree there to be the prickly juniper (Juniperus oxycedrus).[5]

Semantic evolution

The Greeks used the name for several junipers as well as for true cedars: Theophrastus distinguishes Syrian and Phoenician kinds, and Strabo uses it for a Himalayan tree.[5] Herodotus describes the oil of cedar used by Egyptian embalmers.[5][7] By metonymy it was cedar-wood and something made of it: in Euripides a coffin of cedar, in Theocritus a cedar chest used as a beehive.[5][7] Lucian uses it for cedar oil.[5]

It was borrowed as Latin cedrus,[2][8] which passed into French cèdre, German Zeder and English cedar.[4] Hellenistic Greek also made it masculine, ὁ κέδρος, and Modern Greek κέδρος (kédros) is masculine.[9][10]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey mentions burning cedar on an island.[5][6]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus describes Egyptian embalming with cedar oil, and Euripides uses it for a cedar coffin.[5][7][11]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus distinguishes kinds of cedar and juniper, and Theocritus has a cedar chest.[5][11]
  • 1st century AD – Dioscorides calls the common juniper the small κέδρος.[5][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cedar tree; also various junipers.[5][7]
  2. Cedarwood.[7]
  3. Something made of cedarwood: a coffin, a chest.[5][7]
  4. Cedar oil.[5]

Word family

  • κέδρινος (kédrinos)
  • κεδρίς (kedrís)
  • κεδρωτός (kedrōtós)
  • κέδρον (kédron)
  • κεδρόω (kedróō)
  • ὀξύκεδρος (oxúkedros)

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  4. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  9. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge