Etymologically
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κρύπτω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /krýp.tɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈkryp.to/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈkryp.to/[1]

Forms

κρῠ́πτω (krúptō) [1] Future κρύψω (krúpsō), aorist ἔκρυψα (ékrupsa), passive aorists ἐκρύφθην (ekrúphthēn), ἐκρύφην (ekrúphēn) and, in the New Testament, ἐκρύβην (ekrúbēn), and perfect κέκρυμμαι (kékrummai), and the Homeric iterative κρύπτασκε (krúptaske).[2][3]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.[1] It resembles καλύπτω (kalúptō, “to cover”) in form and meaning, and each may have influenced the other.[4][5][1] Chantraine, setting aside the vowel length and the final labial, compares Old Church Slavonic крꙑти (kryti, “to hide”) and Lithuanian kráuti (“to pile up”), but de Vaan notes that the Balto-Slavic forms require a laryngeal which the Greek excludes.[5][1] Since there is no good Indo-European etymology, Beekes suggests that it could be Pre-Greek, which the frequent variation of the final stop (⟨π⟩, ⟨φ⟩, ⟨β⟩) seems to confirm.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it means to hide or conceal, and to cover someone for protection, as with a shield; in the Odyssey it also means to keep something secret.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod uses it of Zeus putting away a race of mortals, and both he and Pindar use it of hiding someone beneath the earth and of burying the dead.[2] Tragedy uses it of covering a head or a body with a garment, and the middle of hiding oneself is found from Heraclitus on.[2] The derived adjective κρυπτός (kruptós, “hidden”) is the source of English cryptic, through Late Latin.[7]

Hellenistic Greek formed a new present κρύβω (krúbō) from the passive aorist stem, which Josephus and the magical papyri use.[3][8][9] Medieval Greek had κρύβω with dialect forms such as Cretan κρούβγω.[10] Modern Greek κρύβω (krývo) is the ordinary verb for “hide”.[8]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for hiding and for covering with a shield, the Odyssey also for keeping secret.[2][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of Zeus putting away a race of mortals.[2][11]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar uses it for burying the dead, and Heraclitus has the middle, to hide oneself.[2][11]
  • 1st century AD – Josephus uses the new present κρύβω (krúbō), and the New Testament the passive aorist ἐκρύβην (ekrúbēn).[3]
  • 1630s – English borrows cryptic, from a derivative of the verb.[7]
  • Modern Greek – κρύβω (krývo) means to hide.[8][9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To hide or conceal from sight; in the middle, to hide oneself.[2]
  2. To put out of sight, so as to get rid of.[2]
  3. To hide beneath the earth; to bury the dead.[2]
  4. To cover for protection, as with a shield or armour; to cover or shroud with clothing.[2]
  5. To keep secret.[2]

Word family

  • ἀποκρύπτω (apokrúptō)
  • ἐγκρύπτω (enkrúptō)
  • ἐπικρύπτω (epikrúptō)
  • κατακρύπτω (katakrúptō)
  • συγκρύπτω (sunkrúptō)
  • ὑποκρύπτω (hupokrúptō)
  • κρυπτάδιος (kruptádios)
  • κρυπτεία (krupteíā)
  • κρυπτεύω (krupteúō)
  • κρυπτή (kruptḗ)
  • κρύπτης (krúptēs)
  • κρυπτικός (kruptikós)
  • κρυπτός (kruptós)
  • English crypt
  • English cryptic

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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b 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
  5. ^ a b 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 Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  9. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  11. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge