κέρας

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ké.ras/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈce.ras/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈce.ras/^[1]

Forms

κέρᾰς (kéras) n (genitive κέρᾱτος or κέρᾰος or κέρεος or κέρως); third declension^[1] Genitive epic κέραος, Herodotean κέρεος, Attic κέρως and κέρατος; plural Attic κέρατα, Herodotean κέρεα.^[2][3][4] Mycenaean Greek ke-ra-a /keraha/ (nominative plural).^[2][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kérats,^[1] probably remodelled from an older s-stem *kéras, which survives in κερασφόρος (kerasphóros) “horned”, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head, top; horn”).^[1][2] Beekes reconstructs the full grade *ḱerh₂-es-; the zero grade appears in κάρα (kára) and κάρηνον (kárēnon) “head, top” and in κρανίον (kraníon) “skull”, and Latin cerebrum (“brain”) is the same s-stem with a suffix -ro-.^[2][6] The original meaning was probably “horn”, whence “horned animal head” and then “head” in general.^[2][6]

Other Indo-European languages have n-formations, such as Latin cornū and Old High German horn; Hittite karāwar (“horn”) also belongs here.^[6][5] Rosół lists the word among the Semitic–Indo-European isoglosses: the Indo-European words for “horn” are probably connected with the Semitic word, Akkadian qarnu, but the relation between them is unclear.^[5]

Byzantine etymologists derived it from κάρα “head”, because horns grow from the head.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mycenaean tablets have ke-ra-a, “horns”.^[2][5] In Homer it is the horn of an animal, mostly of oxen and of a wild goat; horn as a material, as in the Gates of Horn through which true dreams pass; each of the horns of a bow; probably a topknot of hair; and something of horn used in fishing.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

Classical Greek used it for vessels and instruments made of horn, the drinking-horn and the signalling horn, and for a bow.^[4] By resemblance it named the branch of a river (Hesiod, Thucydides), the horns of the crescent moon, a mountain peak, and above all the wing of an army or fleet (Aeschylus, Herodotus, Thucydides), so that κατὰ κέρας meant “on the flank”.^[4][3] Τὸ Κέρας, “the Horn”, was the Golden Horn at Byzantium (Polybius), and the horn of Amaltheia, the horn of plenty, appears from Anacreon on.^[4]

In the Septuagint the horn is a symbol of strength: “to lift up the horn” is to exalt, God is a “horn of salvation”, and altars have horn-shaped corners.^[9] Luke applies the “horn of salvation” to the Messiah.^[9][10] The diminutive κεράτιον (kerátion) named the fruit of the carob tree (Luke 15:16) and a small weight and coin, the carat.^[2][11]

Medieval Greek used it for a battle array and for power.^[12] Modern Greek keeps κέρας as a learned word, chiefly in “the horn of Amaltheia” and for the musical horn, while the ordinary word is Modern Greek κέρατο (kérato).^[13][7]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – ke-ra-a, “horns”, on the Linear B tablets.^[2][5]
• Homer – horns of oxen and goats; the Gates of Horn.^[8][4]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for the branch of a river.^[4][14]
• 6th century BC – Anacreon mentions the horn of Amaltheia.^[4][14]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it for the wing of an army.^[4][14]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius calls the Golden Horn Τὸ Κέρας.^[4][14]
• 1st century AD – Luke's “horn of salvation”.^[10]
• Modern Greek – κέρας as a learned word; everyday κέρατο.^[13][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The horn of an animal, and (figurative, Septuagint and New Testament) strength, power.^[4][9][10]
2. A drinking-horn.^[4]
3. A horn for signalling, a trumpet.^[4]
4. A bow.^[4]
5. Horn as a material.^[4][8]
6. A piece of horn on a fishing line.^[4][8]
7. Hair worn in a horn-like peak.^[4][8]
8. A branch of a river, and (with the article) the Golden Horn.^[4]
9. The horn of the crescent moon; a mountain peak; the tip of a pole.^[4]
10. The wing or flank of an army or fleet.^[4][3]
11. A column or line of troops or ships.^[4]
12. A horn-shaped corner of an altar.^[9][10]

Word family

• κεράτινος (kerā́tinos)
• κεράτιον (kerā́tion)
• μονόκερως (monókerōs)
• αἰγόκερας (aigókeras)
• ῥινόκερως (rhīnókerōs)
• κερασφόρος (kerasphóros)
• κεράστης (kerástēs)

Related words

• κάρα (kárā)
• κρανίον (krāníon)
• Latin cornū
• English rhinoceros
• English carat

Usage notes

The Suda notes that in Scripture the horn means strength, by a metaphor from animals that defend themselves with their horns.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
6. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
8. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b c d Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner