κεραός

Forms

κερᾰός (keraós) m (feminine κερᾰᾱ́, neuter κερᾰόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kerawós,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“head, horn”), the root of κέρας (kéras, “horn”).^[2][1][3] The older form *κεραϝός (*kerawós) is the same formation as several names of the deer and of other horned animals: Latin cervus (“deer”), from *ḱerh₂u̯-o-,^[2] and, from the zero grade, Middle Welsh carw (“deer”), Russian корова (koróva, “cow”) and Lithuanian kárvė (“cow”).^[2] Beekes assumes an original paradigm with full and zero grade side by side, which explains the non-palatal /k/ of the Balto-Slavic words.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is an epithet of the deer, “horned”, and in the Odyssey it describes lambs.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod and Herodotus use it too, and the Hellenistic poets keep it as a poetic word: Theocritus calls a he-goat horned, and Moschus the crescent moon.^[5][3][6] Callimachus gives it the second sense “made of horn”, of walls in the Hymn to Apollo.^[3][5][2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of the deer, the Odyssey of lambs.^[4][3]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days uses it.^[5][6][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it.^[6][7]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theocritus uses it of a he-goat, and Callimachus first uses it for “made of horn”.^[3][7]
• 2nd century BC – Moschus uses it of the crescent moon.^[5][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Horned, of deer, lambs, goats and cattle.^[3][5]
2. Of the crescent moon, horned.^[5]
3. Made of horn.^[3][5]

Related words

• κέρας (kéras)
• κεραώψ (keraṓps)
• Latin cervus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
5. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge