κέλης

Pronunciation

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

Forms

κέλης (kélēs) m (genitive κέλητος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is perhaps a derivative in ⟨-ητ-⟩ from Ancient Greek κέλομαι (kélomai, “to urge on”).^[2][3] Wiktionary also allows a direct derivation from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“fast, swift”),^[1] and LSJ, Cunliffe and the CGL relate it to κέλλω (kéllō, “to drive on”).^[4][5][6] Frisk finds comparisons with Avestan čarāitī- (“young woman”) and Old High German helid (“hero”) very doubtful.^[3]

It was borrowed as Latin celēs and, reshaped after vēlōx (“swift”), as celōx (“fast-sailing ship”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its only Homeric instance is in the Odyssey: Odysseus bestrides a single plank of his wrecked raft “as if riding a racehorse”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek it is a riding horse or racehorse, as opposed to a chariot team: Herodotus lists racehorses beside chariots, and Plato mentions victories at Delphi, the Isthmus and Nemea with four-horse chariots and racehorses.^[4][6] Several of Pindar's odes are titled for victories with the κέλης.^[4] Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon also use it for a light, fast ship, a kind of yacht with one bank of oars,^[4][6] used to carry news and by pirates.^[7] Aristophanes plays on it with an obscene sense.^[4] Hesychius glosses it as a horse, a rider and a kind of ship.^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey compares Odysseus on his plank to a man riding a racehorse.^[4][5][9]
• 7th century BC – Alcman uses it for a racehorse.^[6][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it both for racehorses and for a fast ship.^[4][6]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for light, fast ships.^[4][9]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius still uses it for a fast ship.^[4][6][10]
• 12th century AD – Eustathius uses it in an obscene sense.^[4][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A riding horse, courser, racehorse; also with ἵππος.^[4][6]
2. A light, fast-sailing ship with one bank of oars, a yacht.^[4][6]
3. (obscene) Used with a play on the riding sense.^[4]

Word family

• κελητίζω (kelētízō)
• κελήτιον (kelḗtion)

Related words

• κέλλω (kéllō)
• κέλομαι (kélomai)
• Latin celōx

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes the κέλης, a small boat, from the ἐπακτροκέλης (epaktrokélēs), a pirate vessel.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
8. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)