Etymologically
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κόραξ

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /kó.raks/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈko.raks/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈko.raks/[1]

Forms

κόρᾰξ (kórax) m (genitive κόρᾰκος); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱorh₂k-, from *ḱorh₂- (“crow, raven”).[1] It is cognate with other formations of the same root: Latin corvus (“raven”), cornīx (“crow”) and Greek κορώνη (korṓnē, “crow”) and κόραφος (kóraphos), a bird name in Hesychius.[2][1][3] Beekes sees in -αξ the common Greek suffix, so the word need not be traced to a nasal form like that of the Greek and Latin words for the crow.[2] Pronk suggests that Balto-Slavic words for the magpie continue the same formation.[2] Chantraine notes that the suffix is frequent in familiar words and that these bird names must rest on an imitation of the cry, as in κράζω (krā́zō, “to croak”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Odyssey has it only in the place name “Raven's Rock”.[2][4] The bird itself, the raven, appears first in a fragment of Hesiod and in Theognis, who calls something lost “food for the ravens”.[5][6][4]

Semantic evolution

The raven was noted as a scavenger that feeds on corpses, and Pindar has ravens chattering in vain against the divine bird of Zeus.[5][6] The curse “to the crows!”, that is, go and be hanged, is common in Aristophanes and comedy and goes back to Archilochus.[5][6] Aristotle and Theophrastus describe it as a sign of bad weather; a “white raven” was a proverb for something unheard of.[6]

From the shape of its beak the word named hooked objects: Polybius' “raven” was a machine that let down a gangway for boarding enemy ships, and later writers use it for siege engines, door handles, hooks and a surgical blade.[5][6] It also named the cormorant, a fish, the constellation Corvus, and a grade in the mysteries of Mithras.[6] The Gospel of Luke mentions ravens, and the Epistle of Barnabas recalls that Jews were forbidden to eat them.[7] Medieval Greek reshaped it as Byzantine Greek κόρακας (kórakas), still used today beside Modern Greek κοράκι (koráki).[8][9]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Odyssey has the place name “Raven's Rock”.[2][4]
  • 7th century BC – Archilochus uses the curse “to the crows!”.[5][10]
  • 6th century BC – Theognis uses it for the bird as a scavenger.[6][10]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes often uses the curse “to the crows!”.[6][10]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Aratus names the constellation Corvus.[6][10]
  • 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for a boarding device on warships.[6][5][10]
  • 1st century AD – The Gospel of Luke mentions ravens.[7]
  • Modern Greek – The word survives as κόρακας, beside κοράκι.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The raven or crow.[6][5] ἐς κόρακας, “to the crows!”, go to hell![5][6]
  2. The cormorant.[6]
  3. The constellation Corvus.[6]
  4. A grade in the mysteries of Mithras.[6]
  5. Something hooked like a raven's beak: a boarding device or grappling engine on warships, a siege engine, a hooked door handle, a hook.[6][5]
  6. A fish, the same as the κορακῖνος (korakînos).[6]

Word family

  • κοράκινος (korákinos)
  • κοραξός (koraxós)
  • πυρροκόραξ (purrhokórax)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 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
  4. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b 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
  8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge