καινός

Forms

καινός (kainós) m (feminine καινή, neuter καινόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kəňňós, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥-yós, from the root Proto-Indo-European *ken- (“new, fresh”).^[1][2] Chantraine finds it plausible that a thematic adjective was made from an old stem in -n- seen in Indo-Iranian words for “girl”: Avestan kaine (“girl”), Sanskrit कन्या (kanyā̀, “girl, maiden”) and the adjective कनीन (kanī́na, “young”).^[3][2][1] Beekes adds Latin recēns (“fresh, new”), from a verb “to rise, begin”.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the comic epic Margites, then in Aeschylus and Herodotus, meaning new, fresh: Herodotus contrasts deeds “neither new nor old”.^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Chantraine stresses that καινός meant “new” in the sense of newly made, newly invented or unexpected, unlike νέος (néos), which could also mean “young” of living beings.^[3] So it is used for news, new laws and new gods, for novel inventions, and for what is strange or unheard-of.^[6][5] Plato's Apology and Xenophon's Memorabilia speak of “new divinities”, καινὰ δαιμόνια.^[7] Plutarch uses it for political innovation, rendering Latin res novae, and for the novus homo, the first of his family to hold office.^[6][5] The compound καινοτομέω (kainotoméō), a mining term for cutting a new gallery, came to mean “to make innovations” in the state.^[2][3]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it carries the sense of a new order replacing the old: the “new covenant”, καινὴ διαθήκη, and a new heaven and earth.^[7][8] The learned word Modern Greek καινός (kainós) survives in set phrases such as Καινή Διαθήκη, the New Testament; the everyday word is καινούριος (kainoúrios).^[9]

Timeline

• 7th–6th century BC – The comic epic Margites has the earliest instance in the GLAUx corpus.^[4]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus speaks of bringing “new words”, i.e. news,^[5][6] and Herodotus contrasts new and old deeds.^[5][6][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and Xenophon write of “new divinities”.^[7][10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for the Roman novus homo and for revolution.^[6][5][10]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of the “new covenant”.^[7][8]
• Modern Greek – Learned Modern Greek καινός (kainós) survives in Καινή Διαθήκη.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. New, fresh, recent.^[5][6]
2. Newly made (of cups, ships, wine).^[5]
3. Replacing what existed before: a new name, law, ruler or god.^[6]
4. Newly invented, novel; strange, unheard-of.^[5][6][7]
5. (of actions) revolutionary, subversive (Latin res novae).^[6][5]
6. (of a person) New in a role; a man first of his family to hold office (Latin novus homo).^[6][5]
7. (New Testament) New as opposed to the old order: the new covenant, the new creation.^[7][11]

Word family

• ἐγκαίνια (enkaínia)
• καινότης (kainótēs)
• καινόω (kainóō)
• καινίζω (kainízō)
• καινοτομέω (kainotoméō)
• καινοποιέω (kainopoiéō)
• ἀνακαινίζω (anakainízō)

Related words

• Latin recēns

Usage notes

The phrase ἐκ καινῆς means “afresh”, as Thucydides uses it of rebuilding walls.^[6][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 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
4. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ 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
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f 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
8. ^ a b Thayer, Joseph Henry (1889), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, New York: American Book Company
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.