Etymologically
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κόπτω

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /kóp.tɔː/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈkop.to/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈkop.to/[1]

Forms

κόπτω (kóptō) [1]

Etymology

It is probably a present in ⟨*-ye-⟩ from the root Proto-Indo-European *(s)kep- (“to hack, chop”), with the o-grade that dominates in its verbs.[2][1][3] It matches Lithuanian kàpti (“to hew, fell”) and Albanian kep (“to hew”), and there are Slavic verbs such as Russian копать (kopatʹ, “to dig”).[3][4][2] Beekes notes that if it belongs with σκάπτω (skáptō, “to dig”) and σκέπαρνον (sképarnon, “adze”), with their α/ο variation, it could instead come from a Pre-Greek or European substrate.[3] Frisk thought the relation with the ⟨sk-⟩ words would always remain unsolved.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it for striking with a blow: Odysseus strikes the horses with his bow, the Earth-holder strikes the two Ajaxes with his staff, a man fells an ox by striking it behind the horns, and chains are hammered out.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to strike or smite, with the hand, a weapon or a tool: to slaughter animals, to cut off a head, to cut down trees, to lay waste a land, to hammer metal and later to stamp coins, and to knock at a door.[6][7] In the passive, Thucydides uses it of ships disabled in battle, and Aeschylus figuratively of a mind “struck” out of its wits.[6][7]

In the middle it meant to beat one's head or breast in mourning, and so to mourn for someone; this is its usual sense in the Septuagint, where Abraham mourns for Sarah, and in the New Testament, where the tribes of the earth will mourn.[7][8][9] The Gospels also use it for cutting branches to spread before Jesus.[9] The sense “to tire out” gave κόπος (kópos, “toil, weariness”), and other derivatives are κόμμα (kómma, “stamp, piece, comma”) and κομμός (kommós, “lament”).[3][4] Byzantine Greek κόβω is the Modern Greek word for “to cut”.[1][10]

Timeline

  • Homer – It is used for striking, slaughtering and hammering.[5][6]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the middle for beating one's breast in mourning.[9][7]
  • 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for cutting down trees and for ships disabled in battle.[6]
  • 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses the middle for mourning.[8]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospels use it for cutting branches and for mourning.[9]
  • Byzantine period – It becomes κόβω.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To strike, smite, hit.[6][7]
  2. To strike down, slaughter an animal.[6][7]
  3. To cut off, chop off; to cut down trees; to lay waste a land.[6][9]
  4. To hammer, forge; to stamp coins.[6]
  5. To knock at a door.[7]
  6. (passive, of ships) To be disabled.[6]
  7. (middle) To beat one's breast in grief; to mourn for someone.[7][9]
  8. To tire out.[3][4]

Word family

  • ἀνακόπτω (anakóptō)
  • ἀποκόπτω (apokóptō)
  • διακόπτω (diakóptō)
  • ἐκκόπτω (ekkóptō)
  • κόμμα (kómma)
  • κομμός (kommós)
  • κοπάζω (kopázō)
  • κόπανον (kópanon)
  • κοπετός (kopetós)
  • κοπιάω (kopiáō)
  • κοπίς (kopís)
  • κόπις (kópis)
  • κόπος (kópos)
  • κοπώδης (kopṓdēs)
  • σκάπτω (skáptō)
  • συγκοπή (sunkopḗ)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ a b c d e f Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
  10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr