κίναιδος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /kí.nai̯.dos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈci.nɛ.ðos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈci.ne.ðos/^[1]

Forms

κῐ́ναιδος (kínaidos) m (genitive κῐναίδου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unexplained.^[2][3] Beekes considers it probably Pre-Greek.^[2][1] The physician Archigenes, quoted by Galen, called it a Syrian word.^[2][3] Fick derived it from κναίω (knaíō, “to scrape”), as “itching”, through an adverb in -δόν (-dón), which Frisk doubts.^[3]

Ancient writers derived it from κινέω (kinéō, “to move”) and αἰδώς (aidṓs, “shame”) or αἰδοῖον (aidoîon, “genitals”): the Etymologicum Gudianum explains it as one who stirs up shame.^[4] Babiniotis notes that the /i/ of that verb is long, which rules this out.^[4]

Latin cinaedus was borrowed from it.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in Plato's Gorgias and in Aeschines, of a man who takes the passive part in intercourse with men.^[6][7][8] Babiniotis cites a line he ascribes to Archilochus, comparing the mind of such a man with that of a prostitute.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was a term of abuse, as in Aeschines.^[7][8] In Herodas and in a papyrus of the 3rd century BC it is a lewd fellow in general,^[6] and Hesychius and Photius gloss it as dissolute or effeminate.^[4] A papyrus of the 1st century BC seems to use it for a public dancer, and Diogenes Laertius uses the plural for obscene poems.^[6] Pliny gives the name to a sea fish, and Galen to a bird;^[6][2] its derivative κιναίδιον (kinaídion) named the wryneck.^[3]

It survives as a learned, disparaging word in Modern Greek, Modern Greek κίναιδος (kínedos).^[9]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it in the Gorgias.^[6][7][8]
• 4th century BC – Aeschines uses it as an insult, and κιναιδία (kinaidía) for the conduct.^[7][3][4]
• 3rd century BC – Herodas uses it for a lewd fellow.^[6]
• 1st century AD – Pliny records it as the name of a sea fish.^[6][2]
• Modern Greek – κίναιδος (kínedos) survives as a learned, disparaging word.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A man who takes the passive part in sex with men; used as an insult.^[7][6]
2. A lewd fellow, a debauchee.^[6][3]
3. A public dancer (uncertain).^[6]
4. (in the plural) obscene poems.^[6]
5. A sea fish; also a bird.^[6][2]

Related words

• Latin cinaedus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 e f 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. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki