κασίγνητος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /ka.sí.ɡnɛː.tos/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /kaˈsi.ɣni.tos/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /kaˈsi.ɣni.tos/^[1]

Forms

κᾰσίγνητος (kasígnētos) m or f (genitive κᾰσιγνήτου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound whose second part is -γνητος (-gnētos, “born”), from the root of γίγνομαι (gígnomai), a term of legitimate, recognised birth.^[2][1][3] Beekes reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *km̥ti-ǵn̥h₁-tos (“born together”), that is, born of the same mother, with the first part from *κατι- (*kati-), the source of καί (kaí);^[4] Thessalian κατίγνειτος (katígneitos) still has the /t/.^[4]

Chantraine finds the first part obscure.^[2] He rejects Wackernagel's idea of a participle of τίκτω (tíktō) that would mark brothers of one womb, as in ἀδελφός (adelphós).^[2] Kuiper compared κατά (katá), and Lejeune, whose solution Chantraine finds plausible, compared Mycenaean Greek ka-si-ko-no “apprentice, companion” and a Hittite preposition meaning “with”.^[2][5] The short form κάσις (kásis) is used in tragedy.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Iliad on, meaning a brother, whether of the full or of the half blood, as when Paris is called the brother of Lycaon, Priam's son by another wife.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Some Homeric passages show that it could also mean a cousin on the father's side, an old usage that compounds such as αὐτοκασίγνητος (autokasígnētos, “own brother”) and πατροκασίγνητος (patrokasígnētos, “father's brother”) confirm.^[2][4] The feminine κασιγνήτη (kasignḗtē) meant a sister.^[4][6] In the plural it could mean kinsmen in general, and Herodotus uses it of related peoples.^[6]

It is also found in Lesbian, Cypriot and Corcyraean,^[4][2] but elsewhere it became a poetic equivalent of ἀδελφός (adelphós).^[2][4] Sophocles and Euripides use it as an adjective, “of a brother” or “of a sister”.^[6]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for a brother, and sometimes a cousin.^[3][2][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Works and Days and the Theogony.^[7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the plural of kindred peoples.^[6]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it as an adjective, “of a brother”, and its feminine dual for two sisters.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A brother, of the full or half blood.^[6][3][8]
2. (Homeric) A cousin on the father's side.^[2]
3. (in the plural) Kinsmen, brethren; of peoples, kindred nations.^[6]
4. (feminine) A sister.^[6][4]

Adjective

1. Of a brother or of a sister.^[6][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
3. ^ a b c d Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli