κυκλικός

Forms

κυκλῐκός (kuklikós) m (feminine κυκλῐκή, neuter κυκλῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle, wheel”) + -ικός (-ikós).^[1][2] Chantraine lists it among the derivatives of the noun, with the sense “of the circle”.^[2] The base noun is the old Indo-European name of the wheel, from the reduplicated Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos (“wheel, circle”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aristotle's On the Heavens, of a body that moves in a circle, and as the adverb κυκλικῶς, of circular motion.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the geometry of the circle it passed to mathematics and astrology: Nicomachus calls a number “cyclic” when its square ends in the same digit, and Vettius Valens uses it of planets that rule in rotation.^[4] Dionysius of Halicarnassus gives the name to a form of the anapaest whose long syllable is shorter than a normal long.^[4]

In literature it was tied to the epic cycle: the scholia call the poets of the Epic Cycle οἱ κυκλικοί, a use Chantraine describes as late.^[4][2] Callimachus had already used it with contempt of a “cyclic poem”, meaning a hackneyed, conventional one,^[4][6] and the Homeric scholia call the common text of Homer the “cyclic” edition, the vulgate.^[4] Latin borrowed the word as Latin cyclicus.^[7]

It survives in Modern Greek as a learned word, Modern Greek κυκλικός (kyklikós) “circular; periodic”, whose newer senses copy French cyclique and English cyclic.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of a body moving in a circle.^[4][10]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus calls a poem he dislikes “cyclic”, that is, commonplace.^[4][6][10]
• 1st century BC – Diodorus Siculus speaks of a circular period, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus names a kind of anapaest with it.^[4][10]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Nicomachus uses it of numbers whose squares end in the same digit.^[4][10]
• 2nd century AD – Vettius Valens uses it in astrology of what rules in rotation.^[4][10]
• Modern Greek – The learned word κυκλικός (kyklikós) means circular and periodic.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Circular, moving in a circle.^[4][11]
2. Of a circle; of a number whose square ends in the same digit.^[4]
3. Belonging to the Epic Cycle; as a noun, οἱ κυκλικοί, the poets of the Epic Cycle.^[4][6]
4. Hackneyed, conventional, like a cyclic poem.^[4][6]
5. (prosody) As a noun (supply πούς), a form of the anapaest with a shortened long syllable.^[4]
6. (astrology) Subordinate, ruling in rotation.^[4]
7. In common use; ἡ κυκλική (supply ἔκδοσις), the vulgate text of Homer.^[4]

Related words

• κύκλος (kúklos)
• κύκλιος (kúklios)
• Latin cyclicus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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
3. ^ 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
10. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
11. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli