κυφός

Forms

κῡφός (kūphós) m (feminine κῡφή, neuter κῡφόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It belongs with κύπτω (kúptō, “to stoop”).^[1][2][3] Frisk and Chantraine take κυφός, isolated in its formation, as the older word, with the original aspirate that is still seen in the perfect κέκυφα (kékupha).^[4][5][2] Beekes considers the family Pre-Greek, because of the variation between ⟨κυφ-⟩ and ⟨κυπ-⟩.^[2][1]

Others compare Sanskrit कुभ्र (kubhrá-, “humpbacked bull”) and कुब्ज (kubjá-, “humpbacked, crooked”), though a Munda origin has also been claimed for those words.^[2][4][5] Words with a final ⟨-p-⟩ in other branches, such as Lithuanian kuprà (“hump”) and Old High German hovar (“hump”), have also been brought in.^[2][4][5] A direct comparison of κῦφος (kûphos, “hump”) with Avestan kaōfa- (“mountain, camel's hump”) is misleading, as the noun is a late Greek derivative of κυφός.^[4][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Odyssey has it of an old man bent with age (“γήραϊ κυφὸς ἔην”, “he was bent with age”).^[6][3][7]

Semantic evolution

Aristophanes uses it of stooping old men, and the Hippocratic writers of the forward curvature of the spine.^[3][7] By their shape the word described red mullets in Epicharmus and, often, shrimps: in Aristotle the feminine plural means shrimps; it is also said of birds and of a curved plough.^[3][7] Athenaeus uses it of a round cup.^[3]

From it came κύφων (kúphōn), the curved yoke of the plough and the pillory, κῦφος (kûphos), “hump”, and the medical κύφωσις (kúphōsis), “being hunchbacked”.^[2][4] Modern Greek has κυφός (kyfós), “hunchbacked”, and κύφωση (kýfosi).^[8]

Timeline

• Homer – The Odyssey describes an old man as bent with age.^[6][3]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use it of curvature of the spine.^[3][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of stooping old men.^[3][7][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the feminine plural for shrimps.^[3][9]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus uses it of a round cup.^[3][9]
• Modern Greek – κυφός (kyfós) means hunchbacked.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Bent forwards, stooping, hunchbacked, especially with age.^[3][7][6]
2. Of a plough or a beam, crooked, curved.^[7][3]
3. Of shrimps and fish, hunched; as a feminine noun, a shrimp.^[3]
4. Of a cup, curved, round.^[3]

Word family

• κυφαλέος (kuphaléos)
• κῦφος (kûphos)
• κύφων (kū́phōn)

Related words

• κύπτω (kúptō)

Usage notes

Photius glosses it as “curved”, and records πάγκυφος (pánkuphos) of an olive tree bent right over.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d 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 c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
10. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)