κιχάνω

Forms

κῐχᾱ́νω (kikhā́nō) ^[1] After Homer, Attic and tragic κιγχάνω (kinkhánō).^[2][3] Doric ἔκιξε (ékixe, “carried”) (Simmias) and Boeotian ἀπέκιξαν (apékixan) (Aristophanes), a new aorist.^[3][4] Mycenaean Greek ke-ke-me-na has been read as a perfect participle of this verb, but other readings are proposed.^[3][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave, abandon”), through a reduplicated present.^[3][4] Beekes and Chantraine start from an athematic present *κίχημι (*kíkhēmi), formed like τίθημι (títhēmi), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰi-ǵʰeh₁-mi; its forms such as κίχημεν (kíkhēmen) came to be felt as aorists when a new present arose.^[3][4] The present κιχάνω, already Homeric, was made after φθάνω (phthánō) beside ἔφθην (éphthēn), and Attic remade it as κιγχάνω (kinkhánō) after λαμβάνω (lambánō).^[3][4] The thematic ἔκιχεν (ékikhen), the sigmatic κιχήσατο (kikhḗsato) and the future κιχήσομαι (kikhḗsomai) are further innovations.^[3] Wiktionary instead reconstructs a reduplicated nasal-infix present *ǵʰi-ǵʰn̥h₁- of the root, meaning “to go”, whose reduplication was taken as part of the stem.^[1]

Cognate with Sanskrit जहाति (jáhāti, “leaves, abandons”) and, with the full grade and no reduplication, the Germanic verb for “go”: Old English gān and Old High German gān.^[3][4][1] The link with χάζομαι (kházomai) and χήρα (khḗrā) is vague.^[4][3] Beekes rejects the form *gʷeh₁- of the LIV, since nothing points to a labiovelar.^[3] Ruijgh and Van Krimpen find the old sense “abandon” in Mycenaean Greek ke-ke-me-na, of deserted land, and think the sense “reach” arose in racing, where a runner reaches and leaves behind another.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Iliad, where Agamemnon threatens the priest Chryses: μή σε, γέρον, κοίλῃσιν ἐγὼ παρὰ νηυσὶ κιχείω, “let me not find you, old man, beside the hollow ships”.^[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Homer it means to come upon or find someone, to overtake a runner, and to reach someone with a spear; it is used also of things, a dart reaching its man or the end of death reaching a warrior.^[2][6] The middle has the same sense.^[2]

It remained a poetic verb.^[2] After Homer the form is κιγχάνω (kinkhánō), first in Solon (perhaps from his laws), then in the lyric parts of Aeschylus and Sophocles.^[2] Pindar uses it of overtaking, Euripides of finding a person at home, and Sophocles once with the genitive, like τυγχάνω (tunkhánō).^[2] Doric and Boeotian made a new aorist with a causative sense, “carry”.^[4][3] Most of its uses are epic, and it comes back in the poetry of the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for finding, overtaking and reaching someone with a weapon.^[6][2]
• 7th–6th century BC – Solon is the first to have the form κιγχάνω (kinkhánō).^[2][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses κιγχάνω in lyric, and Pindar uses the verb of overtaking.^[2][8]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles construes it with the genitive, and Bacchylides has the sigmatic aorist.^[2][8]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Simmias uses the Doric aorist ἔκιξε (ékixe) for “carried”.^[3][4][8]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – It reappears in epic poetry.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To come upon, meet with, find.^[2][6]
2. To reach or overtake a person, a place or an end; of a weapon, to hit.^[2][6]
3. With the genitive, like τυγχάνω (tunkhánō): to light upon.^[2]
4. (Doric, Boeotian, aorist) To carry; to make fall.^[4][3]

Word family

• ἀκίχητος (akíkhētos)
• κίχησις (kíkhēsis)

Related words

• Sanskrit जहाति (jáhāti)
• Old English gān

Usage notes

Hesychius records the aorist participle κίξαντες (kíxantes) glossed as “having come, gone” and κίξατο (kíxato) as “found, took, carried”, and a verbal noun κίχησις (kíkhēsis) glossed as “taking”.^[3][4]

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
6. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge