κανθός

Forms

κανθός (kanthós) m (genitive κανθοῦ); second declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, because it has no Indo-European etymology and no pre-form in the parent language is possible: Proto-Indo-European *kh₂ndʰ- would have given *καθ- (*kath-) in Greek.^[2][3] Chantraine also allows a Pre-Greek stem, following Ruijgh, and would like to connect κάνθαρος (kántharos), κανθήλια (kanthḗlia) and κανθύλη (kanthúlē), but finds no sure way to do so.^[4]

Others compare Celtic words for a rim or circle, Welsh cant “iron band, rim” and Gaulish *cantos, and the Slavic word for a corner, Russian кут (kut), from Proto-Indo-European *kan-tʰo-; but the Greek -θ- is unexplained, and the Slavic words may themselves be loans from the west.^[5][2][4][6] The sense “tyre of a wheel” is a different matter: it comes from Latin cantus “iron tyre”, itself from Celtic.^[5][4][1]

The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from κνήθω (knḗthō, “to itch”), since the corner of the eye is constantly irritated by tears.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first records are in the Hippocratic writings (5th–4th century BC), for the corner of the eye.^[8][1] Aristotle then names the two corners of the eye, one towards the nose and one towards the temples.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

The anatomical sense remained the main one in medicine and in the papyri.^[9][4] Hellenistic and later poets (Callimachus, Cercidas, the Greek Anthology, Oppian) used it for the eye itself.^[9][2][4] In the Roman period it also named the iron tyre of a wheel, under the influence of Latin cantus, and Hesychius records the senses “chimney” and, for the Sicilians, “cooking pot” or a pan for roasting barley.^{[1][4][9][10]}

Modern Greek has it as a learned anatomical word, Modern Greek κανθός (kanthós).^[11][12] It was borrowed as Latin canthus.^[13]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use it for the corner of the eye.^[8][1]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the corners of the eye.^[9][2]
• 3rd century BC – Callimachus and Cercidas use it in verse for the eye.^[9][4]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander uses it for the corner of the eye.^[9]
• AD 301 – Diocletian's price edict uses it for the iron tyre of a wheel.^[9][1]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as a chimney and as a pot.^[9][10]
• Modern Greek – κανθός (kanthós) is a learned anatomical term.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The corner of the eye.^[9][2]
2. (poetic) The eye.^[9][2]
3. The tyre of a wheel.^[9][1]
4. A chimney.^[9][10]
5. (Sicilian) A cooking pot or pan.^[9][2][10]

Word family

• ἐγκάνθιος (enkánthios)
• ἐγκανθίς (enkanthís)
• ἐπικανθίς (epikanthís)
• κανθώδης (kanthṓdēs)

Related words

• Latin cantus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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
5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
13. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann