κόκκυξ

Forms

κόκκῠξ (kókkux) m (genitive κόκκῡγος); third declension^[1] Alcaeus has the nominative κόκκυγος (kókkugos).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kókkūks,^[1] an imitation of the bird's call, κόκκυ (kókku), which also gave the verb κοκκύζω (kokkúzō, “to cry cuckoo”).^[2][3][1] Chantraine, Frisk and Pokorny take the call to be dissimilated from an older *kuku.^[2][3][4]

Other languages made similar names from the same cry: Sanskrit कोकिल (kokilá) “Indian cuckoo”, Latin cucūlus and German Kuckuck, and Lithuanian has kukuoti (“to call cuckoo”).^[4][3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in Hesiod's Works and Days, which names the cuckoo and its call.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Besides the bird, which was sacred to Hera, the word named several things after it.^[5] A sea fish, the piper gurnard, was called so for the cuckoo-like sound it makes, and an early fig because it ripens when the cuckoo sings.^[5][2] Physicians from Rufus and Galen on called the end of the spine κόκκυξ, from its likeness to a cuckoo's beak.^[5][8][9] In Aristophanes “three cuckoos” are a handful of men who voted again and again, which Hesychius explains as said of a few who pass for many.^[5] The word was also a nickname for a stammerer and a name for a mark on a horse's shoulder.^[5]

Derivatives include κοκκύμηλον (kokkúmēlon), a plum, and κοκκυγέα (kokkugéa), the smoke tree.^[3][5] The anatomical sense passed through Latin coccyx to English coccyx (1610s).^[8][6] In Modern Greek the learned κόκκυγας (kókkygas) is the tailbone, while the bird is κούκος (koúkos), a new echoic word.^[9]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days names the cuckoo and its call.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use it for a sea fish, the piper.^[5][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes jokes about “three cuckoos” voting over and over.^[5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes both the bird and the fish.^[5]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander uses it for an early-ripening fig.^[5][2]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Rufus uses it for the end of the spine.^[5]
• 2nd century AD – Pausanias records that the cuckoo was sacred to Hera.^[5]
• 10th century AD – The Hippiatrica use it for a mark on a horse's shoulder.^[5]
• 1610s – English borrows it as coccyx, through Latin.^[8]
• Modern Greek – κόκκυγας (kókkygas) is the tailbone, and the bird is κούκος (koúkos).^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The cuckoo.^[5][2]
2. A sea fish, the piper gurnard.^[5][2]
3. A fig that ripens early.^[5][2]
4. (anatomy) The coccyx, the end of the spine.^[5][8]
5. A stammerer, as a nickname.^[5]
6. A mark on a horse's shoulder.^[5]

Word family

• κοκκύμηλον (kokkúmēlon)
• κοκκυγέα (kokkūgéā)

Related words

• κόκκυ (kókku)
• κοκκύζω (kokkúzō)
• Latin cuculus
• Latin coccyx
• English coccyx

Usage notes

Hesychius also glosses it as a plant, the part of the sacrum near the hips, a crest and a helmet.^[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 h i j 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. ^ a b c d e Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)