κυάθιον

Forms

κυάθιον (kuáthion), n (genitive κυαθίου); second declension, with short α.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a diminutive from Ancient Greek κύαθος (kúathos, “ladle for drawing wine”), formed with the suffix -ιον (-ion).^[2][1][3] Beekes lists it among the diminutives of the noun, beside κυαθίς (kuathís) and κυαθίσκος (kuathískos).^[3]

Beekes considers the base noun itself Pre-Greek, because of its ending, the sequence -υα- and the variants κόβαθος (kóbathos) and κύβεθρον (kúbethron).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the comic poet Pherecrates (5th century BC), whose line Pollux preserves, for a small ladle or cup.^[2][4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed rare: it is quoted by Pollux in the 2nd century AD and appears in a London papyrus of the 4th or 5th century AD.^[2][6] Its companions κυαθίς (kuathís) (Sophron) and κυαθίσκος (kuathískos) were used in the same sense; in medical writers the latter became the spoon-shaped end of a probe.^[2][3][7]

The Modern Greek dictionary Μείζον still lists κυάθιον, with κυαθίσκος, as a word for a small cup, taken from the ancient diminutive of κύαθος (kúathos).^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Pherecrates uses it for a small ladle or cup.^[2][4][5]
• 2nd century AD – Pollux quotes Pherecrates' line in his Onomasticon.^[1][6][5]
• 4th–5th century AD – A London papyrus (PLond. 5.1657) uses the word.^[2]
• Modern Greek – Μείζον lists κυάθιον as a learned word for a small cup.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small ladle for drawing wine; a little cup.^{[2][4][9][10]}

Related words

• κύαθος (kúathos)
• κυαθίς (kuathís)
• κυαθίσκος (kuathískos)

References

1. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
5. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
8. ^ a b Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
9. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, online ed., https://www.koeblergerhard.de