κρέας

Forms

κρέᾰς (kréas) n (genitive κρέως or κρέᾰτος); third declension^[1] Doric κρῆς.^[2][3] Attic genitive κρέως, later κρέατος.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kréwas, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kréwh₂s (“raw flesh”).^[1] Apart from the accent it matches Sanskrit क्रविस् (kravís, “raw flesh”) exactly, from an s-stem *kreuh₂-s-.^[5][1] Benveniste, as Chantraine reports, saw two different formations in the Greek and the Sanskrit words.^[6]

Cognate with Latin cruor (“blood from a wound”), Old Irish crú (“gore, blood”) and Proto-Slavic *kry (“blood”), from the zero grade *kruH-s; with Lithuanian kraũjas (“blood”) and Old Prussian krawian; and with Old English hrǣw (“raw”).^[5][1] Beekes also connects κρύος (krúos, “icy cold”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, mostly in the plural for meat cut up for a meal.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek the singular meant flesh as food or a piece of meat, and the plural meat cut from an animal, roasted or boiled; tragedy and Herodotus also used it of human flesh eaten at a cannibal meal.^[3][2] By extension it meant a carcass or body: a satyr play calls the speaker “this flesh”, and Aristophanes uses it as a mocking address, “you cleverest hunk of meat”.^[2][3] The plural stood for one's skin in battle: Aristophanes speaks of men who “fought the sea battle for their skins”, and the proverb “the hare runs for its meat” meant running for one's life.^[2][3]

The Septuagint and the New Testament use it of meat as food, in phrases such as “to eat meat”.^[4] Medieval Greek kept the word, with dialect forms such as κρας and a new genitive κρεάτου.^[7] It survives as Modern Greek κρέας (kréas), with learned derivatives such as Modern Greek κρεατίνη (kreatíni, “creatine”), formed in 1880 after French créatine.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use the plural for roasted meat.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus speaks of boiled meat, and the tragedians of human flesh served at a meal.^[2][3][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it as a mocking form of address and in the phrase about fighting for one's skin.^[2][3][10]
• 1st century AD – Paul's Letter to the Romans speaks of not eating meat.^[4]
• 2nd century AD – Zenobius records the proverb of the hare running for its meat.^[2][10]
• Medieval Greek – The word continues, with dialect forms such as κρας.^[7]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek κρέας (kréas) continues the ancient word.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Flesh, meat; a piece of meat.^[2][3]
2. In the plural, cuts of meat, dressed meat.^[2][3]
3. A carcass, body; in comedy, as a mocking address to a person.^[2][3]
4. In the plural, one's skin or life, as risked in danger.^[3][2]

Word family

• κρεάγρα (kreágrā)
• πάγκρεας (pánkreas)

Related words

• Latin cruor
• English pancreas

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge