καῦμα

Forms

καῦμᾰ (kaûma) n (genitive καύμᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek καίω (kaíō, “to burn”) + -μα (-ma), from an older *καϝμα (*kawma).^[1][2][3][4]

All the forms of the verb go back to a root καυ- (kau-) or καϝ- (kaw-), and καίω (kaíō) continues *κάϝω (*káwō).^[4] For its further origin Beekes relies on Baltic words such as Lithuanian kū̃lės (“smut of grain”) and Latvian kũla (“old dry grass”), which point to a root Proto-Indo-European *keh₂u- (“to burn”), and καῦμα shows its zero grade.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Iliad, in the phrase “after the heat”, of hot weather.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Hesiod it is the burning heat of the sun and of fire, and in Classical prose the heat of the day: in Plato's Phaedrus a speaker proposes to wait until the heat of the day has passed.^[2][6] The plural is used of hot spells, and late writers even use it of frost.^[2]

Medicine used it for fever heat and inflammation, as Thucydides and the Hippocratic writers do, and for the burns left by cautery.^[2][6] An inscription from Orchomenus uses it of a brand on cattle, Plato of the embers of sacrifices, and papyri of the 1st century AD of firewood.^[2][7] The Book of Revelation uses it of a scorching heat that burns people.^[7]

Latin borrowed it as cauma.^[1] Medieval Greek kept it, with the forms κάημα and κάμα that still live in dialects, and Modern Greek has the learned καύμα (kávma) “heat wave”, as in the meteorological term for the dog days.^[8][9][3]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of hot weather.^[5][2]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for the burning heat of the sun and of fire.^[2][6][10]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for the heat of fever, and Hippocratic writers for inflammation.^[2][6][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for the heat of the day and for the embers of sacrifices.^[2][6][10]
• 1st century AD – A London papyrus uses it for firewood, and the Book of Revelation for scorching heat.^[2][7]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek has καύμα (kávma) beside the forms κάημα (káima) and κάμα (káma).^[8]
• Modern Greek – The learned καύμα (kávma) means “heat wave”.^[9][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Burning heat, especially of the sun; the heat of the day, and in the plural hot spells.^[2][6]
2. The heat of fire or of thunderbolts.^[6]
3. (medicine) Fever heat; inflammation; overheating of the body.^[2][6]
4. (figurative) The heat of love.^[2]
5. (plural) Burns made by cautery; a brand on cattle.^[2]
6. (plural) The embers of sacrifices.^[2][6]
7. (papyri) Firewood.^[2]

Word family

• καυματίζω (kaumatízō)
• καυματώδης (kaumatṓdēs)

Related words

• καίω (kaíō)
• καῦσις (kaûsis)
• καυτήρ (kautḗr)
• Latin cauma

Usage notes

Modern Greek καημός (kaimós) “sorrow” is a separate formation from an aorist stem of καίω (kaíō), and it used to be misspelled with -υ- through a wrong connection with καύμα.^[3][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b c 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