καταρράκτης

Forms

κᾰταρρᾱ́κτης (katarrhā́ktēs) m (genitive κᾰταρρᾱ́κτου); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is an agent noun in -της (-tēs) from Ancient Greek καταρράσσω (katarrhássō, “to dash down”),^[2][3][1] a compound of κατά (katá, “down”) and ῥάσσω (rhā́ssō, “to strike, dash”).^[1][2] The word thus first meant “dashing down, swooping”.^[4][5] The Ionic form was καταρρήκτης (katarrhḗktēs), and a spelling καταράκτης (kataráktēs), connected with καταράσσω (katarássō), is also found.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus names a river in Phrygia Καταρρήκτης, the “cataract” river.^[4] In Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus the word is an adjective, “sheer”, of a road, and Aristophanes uses it of a sea-bird.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

From the idea of something rushing or falling down came its later senses: a waterfall, above all the cataracts of the Nile in Diodorus and Strabo; a portcullis that dropped to close a city gate, in Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch; a boarding bridge let down onto an enemy ship, in Appian; and a sluice in Heliodorus.^[4][7] The diving sea-bird was named, LSJ suggests, from its swoop on its prey; the Septuagint uses the word for an unclean bird, probably the cormorant.^[4][6][8] In the Flood story of the Septuagint the “cataracts of heaven” open to let the rain fall.^[4][8]

Latin borrowed the word as Latin cataracta.^[1][7] Modern Greek has it as καταρράκτης (katarráktis), with a popular form καταρράχτης (katarráchtis), for a waterfall and figuratively a torrent; as a medical term for a clouding of the lens of the eye it was taken back from French cataracte, which goes back through the Latin word to the Hellenistic sense “barrier”.^[9][5]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus records the river name Καταρρήκτης in Phrygia.^[4][10]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it as an adjective, “sheer”, of a road.^[4][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes names a sea-bird so, and Aristotle describes the bird.^[4][6]
• 3rd century BC – The Septuagint speaks of the cataracts of heaven and lists the bird among unclean animals.^[8][4]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus uses it of the cataracts of the Nile, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus of a portcullis.^[4][10]
• 2nd century AD – Appian uses it of a boarding bridge.^[4][10]
• Modern Greek – It means a waterfall and, after French, the eye disease cataract.^[9][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (as an adjective) Rushing down; sheer, precipitous.^[4][6]
2. A waterfall, a cataract, especially of the Nile.^[4][8]
3. A portcullis.^[4][6]
4. A trap-door or floodgate; the “cataracts of heaven” that let the rain through.^[4]
5. A movable bridge let down for boarding ships or for attacking elephants.^[4]
6. A sluice.^[4]
7. A diving sea-bird, perhaps a tern; in the Septuagint probably the cormorant.^[6][4]

Related words

• ῥάσσω (rhā́ssō)
• Latin cataracta

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c d Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
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