κακός

Forms

κᾰκός (kakós) m (feminine κᾰκή, neuter κᾰκόν); first/second declension^[1] Mycenaean Greek ka-zo-e (Pylos, PY Va 1323), the comparative plural “worse”, matching κακίονες.^[2]

Etymology

It has no clear etymology.^[3] Frisk and Chantraine see it as an expressive word of everyday speech, which, as with many words for “bad”, has no established origin.^[4][5] Beekes lists the proposals: de Lamberterie compares Avestan kasu- (“small, slight”), with its comparative and superlative, which Beekes would reconstruct as Proto-Indo-European *kn̥ḱ-; others compare Lithuanian keñkti (“to ache”), from *kenk-, and the Germanic word for hunger, Proto-Germanic *hungruz; or the word could be Pre-Greek.^[3][1] It is also often connected with the nursery word κακκάω (kakkáō, “to defecate”), which Babiniotis favours but Frisk doubts.^[4][6]

The similar Neo-Phrygian word is a borrowing from Greek, though Old Phrygian seems to have had a similar stem as well.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is common from the Iliad on.^[7][3] In Homer it is used of people who are ugly, low-born, cowardly or feeble, and of bad, harmful things.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

In Homer κακός is the opposite of ἐσθλός and ἀγαθός in the warrior's world: a man is κακός if he is ugly, of mean birth, or a coward.^[8][9] It also describes someone who is poor at his job, things of poor quality, and things that bring harm, such as a bad death or an evil omen.^[9][8] In Classical Greek the moral sense, “wicked”, becomes central, and the neuter τὸ κακόν means evil or misfortune.^[8][9]

The New Testament uses it for what is morally wrong and for what is harmful.^[10] Medieval Greek kept it, with χειρότερος as its comparative, and it lives on in Modern Greek κακός (kakós).^[11][12] English has the learned prefix caco-, “bad”, from the Latinised form of the word.^[13]

Timeline

• Mycenaean period – A Pylos tablet has the comparative Mycenaean Greek ka-zo-e, “worse”.^[2]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it of ugly, low-born, cowardly and useless people and of harmful things.^[8][9]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles' Oedipus the King has κακός τ’ ὢν κἀκ κακῶν, “base and born of the base”.^[8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for moral evil.^[10]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as κακός.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of persons) Ugly, unimpressive in looks.^[8][9]
2. Low-born, of humble birth.^[8][9]
3. Cowardly, craven; feeble.^[8][9]
4. Unskilled or useless at a task; of things, worthless, of poor quality.^[9]
5. Morally bad, wicked, evil.^[8][10]
6. Harmful, ruinous, unlucky; τὸ κακόν, evil, misfortune.^[8][9]

Word family

• ἄκακος (ákakos)
• κάκη (kákē)
• κακηγορέω (kakēgoréō)
• κακηγορία (kakēgoría)
• κακήγορος (kakḗgoros)
• κακία (kakíā)
• κακίζω (kakízō)
• κάκιστος (kákistos)
• κακόβιος (kakóbios)
• κακοβουλία (kakoboulía)
• κακοδαιμονία (kakodaimonía)
• κακοδαίμων (kakodaímōn)
• κακοδοξία (kakodoxíā)
• κακόδοξος (kakódoxos)

Related words

• English caco-

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
10. ^ a b c 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. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com