Etymologically
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καίω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /kǎi̯.ɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈcɛ.o/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈce.o/[1]

Forms

καίω (kaíō) [1] Attic κάω (káō), Homeric aorist ἔκηα.[2][3] Mycenaean Greek ke-ka-u-me-no burnt, the perfect passive participle, and the compound Mycenaean Greek pu-ka-wo, probably fire-kindlers.[2][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *káwyō,[1] probably from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂w- (“to burn”).[1][6][2] All its forms go back to a root καυ- (kau-), καϝ- (kaw-):[2] καίω is a yod-present *κάϝ-ω (*káw-ō), with the zero grade Proto-Indo-European *kh₂u̯-, whence Attic κάω (káō); the Homeric aorist ἔκηα (ékēa) is explained, following Kiparsky, from the full grade Proto-Indo-European *h₁e-keh₂u-s-m̥.[2] A full-grade stem κηϝ- (kēw-) is also seen in epic κηλέος (kēléos) and κηώδης (kēṓdēs).[2]

Outside Greek, the root is found only in Baltic: Lithuanian kūlė̃ (“smut fungus”) and Latvian kūla (“old dry grass of last year”).[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets have the perfect participle burnt and a compound for men who kindle fire.[2][4][5] In Homer it means to kindle a fire, a pyre or a lamp, to burn the dead and sacrificial offerings, and in the passive, of fire, to blaze.[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it is also to set places on fire, to burn land, of the sun to scorch, and in medicine to cauterise, a use found in Herodotus, Plato and Xenophon.[3][8] In the Septuagint it is used of lamps and fire, and also figuratively.[9] In the New Testament it is above all to keep a lamp burning, and a prophet is called a burning lamp.[10][3] Medieval Greek added a /ɣ/ between the vowels, giving καίγω (kaígo) beside Modern Greek καίω (kaío), to burn; dialects have forms such as Cypriot κάφκω (káfko).[11][4]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean – the perfect participle burnt.[2][4]
  • Homer – to kindle a fire, burn the dead and offerings.[3][7]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for cauterising.[3][12]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it of troops burning crops, and of snow blistering a hound's feet.[3][12]
  • 1st century AD – the New Testament uses it of burning lamps.[10]
  • Medieval Greek – the form καίγω appears.[11]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To kindle, light a fire, pyre or lamp; passive, to be alight, blaze.[3][8]
  2. To set on fire, burn persons, places or things; passive, to be on fire.[3][8]
  3. To burn the dead on a pyre, or sacrificial offerings.[3]
  4. Of troops, to burn the land; of the sun, to scorch.[3]
  5. (medicine) To cauterise.[3][8]

Word family

  • ἀνακαίω (anakaíō)
  • καῦμα (kaûma)
  • καυμός (kaumós)
  • καῦσις (kaûsis)
  • καῦσος (kaûsos)
  • καύσων (kaúsōn)
  • κήλεος (kḗleos)
  • πυρκαϊά (purkaïā́)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Heggarty, Paul, et al. (2023), Indo-European Cognate Relationships (IE-CoR), Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, https://iecor.clld.org
  5. ^ a b Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  6. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  10. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge