κυνόσουρα

Forms

κυνόσουρα (kunósoura) f (genitive -ας); first declension.^[1][2] Wiktionary heads the name as Κυνοσούρα (Kunosoúrā).^[3] Pape notes that ancient grammarians disagreed on the accent and gives κυνοσουρά, with κυνόσουρα as the accent of Arcadius.^[3][4]

Etymology

A compound from Ancient Greek κύων (kúōn) + οὐρά (ourá), “dog” and “tail”, with the first element in the genitive, κυνός (kunós): literally “dog's tail”.^[3][2][5] The scholia on the Iliad quoted by Pape explain the star name by the bent-back tail that the constellation has, like a dog's.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The name first appears in Herodotus, as Cynosura, a narrow headland on the east coast of Salamis.^[6][7][2] As the name of the constellation now called the Little Bear (Ursa Minor) it is first found in the Phaenomena of Aratus.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

Besides the constellation, the name belonged to several headlands, on Salamis and near Marathon, facing Euboea, and to a tribe or district of Laconia, as Hesychius and Photius record.^[7][8][9] Hesychius adds that it was used of any place shaped like a peninsula.^[8] In mythology Cynosura was an Idaean nymph, one of the nurses of Zeus, who set her among the stars.^[10]

The form Latin Cynosura carried the star name into Western Europe, and French made from it cynosure.^[3][11] Because the Little Bear holds the star by which sailors steered, English cynosure came to mean, from the 1590s, a centre of attention or a guiding light.^[11] In Modern Greek Κυνόσουρα is still the name of the headland on Salamis.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus names the headland Cynosura on Salamis.^[6][7][14]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Aratus uses it for the constellation of the Little Bear.^[1][2][14]
• 2nd century BC – The astronomer Hipparchus uses the name in his commentary on Aratus.^[6][14]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as a Laconian tribe, a headland of Marathon, the Little Bear and any peninsula-like place.^[8][14]
• 9th century AD – Photius records the Laconian tribe and the headland of Marathon.^[9][14]
• 1590s – English borrows cynosure from French, taking the sense “something that draws all eyes”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (astronomy) The constellation of the Little Bear (Ursa Minor), literally “dog's tail”.^[1][2][5]
2. Name of several headlands, on Salamis and near Marathon.^[2][7][8]
3. Name of a tribe or district of Laconia.^[8][9][15]

Related words

• κύων (kúōn)
• οὐρά (ourá)
• Latin Cynosura
• English cynosure

Usage notes

A separate adjective appears in Aristotle's History of Animals, where κυνόσουρα ᾠά are infertile eggs, “wind-eggs”, that do not hatch.^[2][4][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
5. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ a b c Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
10. ^ Smith, William, ed. (1873), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
13. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
14. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
16. ^ Дворецкий, И. Х. (1958), Древнегреческо-русский словарь, Moscow: ГИС