κέντρον

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /kén.tron/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈcen.tron/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈcen.tron/^[1]

Forms

κέντρον (kéntron) n (genitive κέντρου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kéntron, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱéntrom, from *ḱent- (“to prick”);^[1] within Greek it is κεντέω (kentéō, “to sting, goad”) with the instrument suffix -τρον (-tron).^[1][2] Beekes suggests it is a reshaping of κέστρον (késtron, “pointed iron”) after κεντέω (kentéō).^[3] It is directly cognate with Albanian çandër (“forked pole”) and probably Old Armenian սանտր (santr, “comb”).^[1] Other languages have only isolated nouns from this root, such as Old High German hantag (“pointed”) and Latvian sīts (“hunting spear”);^[3] Celtic words such as Breton kentr (“spur”) were probably borrowed from Latin centrum.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for a horse-goad: horses “running without the goad” (Iliad 23.387).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

After Homer it was also the ox-goad, used by Herodotus as an instrument of torture.^[2] The proverb “to kick against the goads” is in Aeschylus, Pindar, Euripides and the New Testament.^[5] It was the sting of bees, wasps and scorpions (Aristophanes, Plato), and figuratively the sting of slander and suffering and the goad of love.^[5]

Geometry took it from the fixed point of a pair of compasses: Plato and Aristotle use it for the centre of a circle, Euclid calls the radius “the line from the centre”, and Archimedes speaks of the centre of gravity.^[2][1] Latin borrowed it as centrum, and Sanskrit as केन्द्र (kendra).^[6][1] The medieval and modern form is Modern Greek κέντρο (kéntro).^[7][1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for a horse-goad.^[2]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the ox-goad for torture.^[2][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the centre of a circle.^[2][8]
• 3rd century BC – Archimedes uses it for the centre of gravity.^[2][8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament has the proverb of kicking against the goads.^[5]
• Modern Greek – κέντρο means centre.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A goad for horses or oxen; an instrument of torture.^[2][5]
2. A sting of a bee, wasp or scorpion; a quill, thorn.^[5][1]
3. (figurative) A goad, spur; a pang (of suffering, love).^[5]
4. Any sharp point, a spike; a nail.^[1]
5. The fixed point of a pair of compasses;^[2] (geometry) the centre of a circle.^[2][1]

Word family

• κεντρικός (kentrikós)

Related words

• κεντέω (kentéō)
• κεστός (kestós)
• Latin centrum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c 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
4. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
7. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge