κρυπτός

Forms

κρῠπτός (kruptós) m (feminine κρῠπτή, neuter κρῠπτόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the verbal adjective of κρύπτω (krúptō, “to hide”).^[1][2]

The origin of the verb is unclear.^[2][1] It resembles καλύπτω (kalúptō, “to cover”) in form and sense, and the two may have influenced each other.^[2][1] It has long been compared with the Balto-Slavic verb seen in Old Church Slavonic крꙑти (kryti, “to hide”) and Lithuanian kráuti (“to pile up”), but the forms do not match exactly, and Beekes, finding no good Indo-European etymology and noting how much the root varies between ⟨π⟩, ⟨φ⟩ and ⟨β⟩, suggests that it may be Pre-Greek.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found once in the Iliad, of a secret bolt that only the one who knows it can open, and then perhaps in a fragment of Hesiod.^[3][4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it meant both “hidden from sight” and “kept secret”.^[6][4] Thucydides used the neuter of the secretiveness of the Spartan state, and Plato used the masculine plural for the Spartan agents of the secret service, the κρυπτεία (krupteíā).^[6][2] Euripides and Sophocles also used it of stealthy steps and of words with a hidden meaning.^[6]

In the New Testament the phrase “in secret” is frequent, and the First Letter of Peter speaks of “the hidden person of the heart”, the inner self.^[7][6] The word was still used in medieval vernacular Greek.^[8] Through its Latinized form it gave the learned element crypto-, used in English from 1760, at first for a secret religious faith and since about 1945 for hidden political loyalties.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of a secret bolt.^[4][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Euripides use it of hidden persons and things.^[6][10]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses the neuter of Spartan secretiveness.^[6][10]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses the phrase “in secret”.^[7][6]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts still use it.^[8]
• 1760 – English forms words with the element crypto-.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hidden from sight, concealed.^[6][4]
2. Secret, hidden from knowledge; ἐν κρυπτῷ “in secret”.^[6][7]
3. (of steps) Stealthy.^[6]
4. (of words) With a hidden meaning, cryptic.^[6]
5. (plural, as a noun) The Spartan secret agents.^[6]

Word family

• κρυπτεία (krupteíā)
• κρυπτάδιος (kruptádios)
• κρυπτικός (kruptikós)

Related words

• κρύπτω (krúptō)
• καλύπτω (kalúptō)
• English crypto-

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
4. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b c 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
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge