κοτύλη

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.^[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)

Related words

• 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)