Etymologically
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κοτύλη

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ko.tý.lɛː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /koˈty.li/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /koˈty.li/[1]

Forms

κοτῠ́λη (kotúlē) f (genitive κοτῠ́λης); first declension[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, from Pre-Greek.[2][3] Following Furnée, he compares κόνδυ (kóndu, “a cup”) and κονδύλιον (kondúlion), which would show the Pre-Greek variation of /t/ and /d/ and prenasalization, and notes that -ύλη (-úlē) is a common Pre-Greek suffix.[3][2] Latin catīnus (“(flat) dish”) is close in meaning, but the difference in vowel and formation makes a direct link unlikely: Beekes takes the two as independent loans from a third language, as is common for names of vessels.[2][4]

Chantraine calls the origin obscure: the comparison with the Latin word has been tried in vain, and Machek's link with Czech kotlati se (“to become hollow”) is a later suggestion; the word may simply be a loan.[5][4] Apollodorus, quoted by Athenaeus, says that the ancients called anything hollow κοτύλη.[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for a small cup, and in the Iliad also for the socket of the hip-joint, “which they call the cup”.[7][6]

Semantic evolution

In Ionic and Attic it became a fixed measure for liquids and dry goods, six kúathoi (kúathos) or half a ξέστης (xéstēs), about a quarter of a litre, and Herodotus, Thucydides and Aristophanes use it so.[6][8][5] The medical writers kept the anatomical sense, the socket of the hip and of the arm, and later writers used it for the hollow of the hand; in the plural Aeschylus has it for cymbals.[6][5] The Septuagint uses it for a liquid measure in Leviticus.[9]

It was borrowed into Latin as cotula.[10] Medieval Greek kept the word, which survives in Pontic Greek, and Modern Greek κοτύλη (kotýli) is a learned revival.[11][12]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for a cup and for the socket of the hip-joint.[7][6]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the plural for cymbals.[6][8][13]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides use it as a measure of capacity.[6][13]
  • 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use it for the socket of a joint.[6][13]
  • Modern Greek – The word is revived as a learned word.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Anything hollow.[6]
  2. A small cup or bowl.[6][8]
  3. The socket of a joint, especially of the hip.[6][8]
  4. A measure of capacity for liquids and dry goods, about a quarter of a litre.[6][8]
  5. The hollow of the hand.[6][14]
  6. (in the plural) Cymbals or castanets.[6][8]

Word family

  • δικότυλος (dikótulos)
  • ἡμικοτύλιον (hēmikotúlion)
  • κοτυληδών (kotulēdṓn)
  • κοτυλήρυτος (kotulḗrutos)
  • κοτυλίσκιον (kotulískion)
  • τρικότυλος (trikótulos)
  • ἀγκοτύλη (ankotúlē)
  • ἐγκοτύλη (enkotúlē)
  • κοτυλίσκος (kotulískos)
  • κοτύλων (kotúlōn)
  • Latin cotula

Usage notes

Athenaeus and Zenobius record the proverb “many things lie between the cup and the edge of the lip”.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b c d 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  8. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  10. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  11. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  13. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
  14. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)