καθαρός

Forms

κᾰθᾰρός (katharós) m (feminine κᾰθᾰρᾱ́, neuter κᾰθᾰρόν); first/second declension^[1] Doric κοθαρός (kotharós), Aeolic κόθαρος (kótharos).^[2][3]

Etymology

No Indo-European etymology has been found.^[4][5][6] Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek, because of the variation between ⟨α⟩ and ⟨ο⟩ in Doric κοθαρός (kotharós) and Aeolic κόθαρος (kótharos), and because of the suffix ⟨-αρ-⟩.^[4][2] Chantraine and Frisk leave the relation of the two vowels unexplained, although Solmsen took the common form as assimilated from the Doric one.^[5][6] Debrunner saw in it a religious term of pre-Greek origin.^[6]

Peters revived the old comparison with Sanskrit शिथिर (śithirá, “loose”), from *ḱr̥th₂-ro-, but Beekes finds that it needs too many ad hoc assumptions, phonetic and semantic.^[4][1] A Semitic origin, from the family of Akkadian qatāru (“to smoke”), so that the word first meant “ritually purified by smoke”, was proposed by Burkert and West and is rejected by Rosół.^[7] It is formed like its opposite μιαρός (miarós, “defiled”).^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it appears only in the phrase ἐν καθαρῷ, “in a clear, open space”.^[9][10] In the Odyssey it is used of clean clothes and, once, of a clean death that befits the innocent.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Classical Greek used it of clean persons, clothes, cups and floors, and extended it to freedom from defilement, above all from the stain of bloodshed: καθαρὸς τὰς χεῖρας, “with clean hands”, in Herodotus, the orators and Plato.^[3] It also meant ritually purified, pure by religious rules, and in Plato holy, of days.^[3] Of things it meant unmixed: pure gold and silver in Herodotus, clear water, pure light, and of oracles and speech clear or plain.^[3] Of citizens and troops it meant pure-blooded, in Euripides and Thucydides.^[3]

In the Septuagint it is the ritual cleanness of animals and persons under the Law, and the New Testament speaks of clean linen, pure gold and a clean cup.^[11][12] Its derivative καθαίρω (kathaírō) “to purify” formed κάθαρσις (kátharsis), the source of the English word catharsis (1770), and the medieval Cathars took their name, “the Pure”, from the Greek through Medieval Latin.^[13] Medieval and Modern Greek καθαρός (katharós) continue the word with its senses.^[14][15]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad has ἐν καθαρῷ “in an open space”, and the Odyssey clean clothes.^[9][10][16]
• 6th–5th century BC – Xenophanes uses it of clean floors and cups and of pure words addressed to the gods.^[3][17]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of pure gold and of hands clean of blood.^[3][17]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of holy days.^[3][17]
• 1570s – The name of the Cathars appears in English.^[13]
• 1770 – English catharsis, from κάθαρσις, is first recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Clean, spotless, free from dirt.^[10][3][9]
2. Of a space: clear, open.^[9]
3. Cleansing, purifying.^[3]
4. Free from moral defilement, especially from bloodguilt, innocent.^[3]
5. Ritually purified, pure by religious requirements, holy.^[3][11]
6. Unmixed, unalloyed: of gold and silver, clear water, pure light.^[3][12]
7. Sincere and honest, and of oracles and speech clear and plain.^[3]
8. Of citizens or troops: of pure descent, true-born.^[3]

Word family

• καθαίρω (kathaírō)
• κάθαρσις (kátharsis)
• καθαρότης (katharótēs)
• καθαρίζω (katharízō)
• καθαρμός (katharmós)
• ἀκάθαρτος (akáthartos)

Related words

• μιαρός (miarós)
• English catharsis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
6. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
10. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
15. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
16. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
17. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge