Etymologically
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κόρη

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Pronunciation

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

Forms

κόρη (kórē) f (genitive κόρης); first declension[1] Epic and Ionic κούρη, Doric κώρα and κόρα, Arcadian and Corinthian κόρϝα.[2][3] Mycenaean Greek ko-wa girl (Knossos and Pylos tablets), beside masculine ko-wo.[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kórwā, whose Mycenaean form is ko-wa.[1][2] The lost /w/ explains Ionic κούρη (koúrē) and why Attic has /ē/ after ρ here, unlike ὥρα (hṓra): the /w/ kept /r/ from protecting the old /ā/.[1][2]

It is the feminine of κόρος (kóros), κοῦρος (koûros, “boy”).[3][2] Frisk and Beekes note that the feminine is far more widespread, as if the masculine had been formed beside it later, though the Mycenaean masculine Mycenaean Greek ko-wo shows that it is old too.[5][2] The family is generally connected with κορέννυμι (korénnumi, “to satisfy”) and so with Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₃- (“to grow, nourish”), but the semantic path is unclear: perhaps from an abstract “growth, bloom”.[2][5] Wiktionary calls the link possible only.[1] The Boeotian gloss κόρυξ (kóruks, “boy”) may continue an older stem in -u-.[2]

Ancient grammarians derived the word for the pupil from “pouring” and “seeing” or from “cleaning”, and the girl from a “pure” youth.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets of Knossos and Pylos have ko-wa, “girl”, in lists of women and children.[4][2] Homer uses κούρη (koúrē) for a girl, a young wife or bride, and a captive concubine such as Briseis, and with a father's name for a daughter, as in “daughters of Zeus”.[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the word meant a girl or maiden, especially as a virgin, and a daughter; poets used it of maiden goddesses such as Athena and Artemis, and of nymphs, the Graces and the Erinyes.[7][3] With the article, Κόρη was “the Daughter”, Persephone, worshipped beside Demeter, “the Mother”.[3][7] In comedy “Deo's daughter” is a joke for flour.[3]

A small figure of a girl was also a κόρη: a doll[8] or a small votive figure (Plato), and in the building accounts of the Erechtheum the stone maidens that carry the roof, the caryatids.[3][7] Because a small image of oneself is seen in another's eye, as Plato explains, the word also named the pupil of the eye, from Empedocles on.[3][7][9] The Septuagint has the phrase “the pupil of the eye” for what is most dearly guarded.[10] Latin borrowed the eye sense as Latin cora.[11]

Medieval vernacular Greek used it for a girl or maiden, the Virgin Mary, a young wife and a daughter.[12] Modern Greek κόρη (kóri) means a daughter, the pupil of the eye, and (a learned use taken from French coré or German Kore) an archaic statue of a girl; everyday Greek says κορίτσι (korítsi) for a girl.[13] It was borrowed as English kore.[1][14]

Timeline

  • Mycenaean period – Tablets from Knossos and Pylos list Mycenaean Greek ko-wa, “girls”.[4][2]
  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use κούρη (koúrē) for girls, brides and daughters.[3][7]
  • 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it for the pupil of the eye,[3][7] and Herodotus names the goddess Kore beside the Mother.[3][7][15]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it for a small votive figure and explains the pupil as the image seen in it.[3][7][15]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses “the pupil of the eye” as an image of what is most precious.[10]
  • Medieval Greek – Vernacular texts use it for a maiden, the Virgin Mary and a daughter.[12]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek κόρη (kóri) means a daughter and the pupil of the eye.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A girl, young woman, maiden; especially a virgin.[3][7]
  2. A young wife or bride; in Homer also a captive concubine.[3]
  3. A daughter, with the father's or mother's name.[3][7]
  4. A maiden goddess or nymph; with the article, (capitalised) the Daughter, Persephone.[7][3]
  5. A doll or small votive figure of a girl.[3][7]
  6. (architecture) A female figure used as a column, a caryatid.[3]
  7. The pupil of the eye; in the plural, the eyes.[3][7]
  8. The Attic drachma, which bore a head of Athena (a misreading, according to LSJ).[3]

Word family

  • κοράσιον (korásion)
  • κουρίδιος (kourídios)
  • κορεύομαι (koreúomai)
  • κόριον (kórion)
  • κοροπλάθος (koropláthos)
  • κόρος (kóros)
  • κοῦρος (koûros)
  • κορέννυμι (korénnumi)
  • English kore

Usage notes

The Cambridge lexicon treats κόρη “long sleeve”, which Xenophon uses for the sleeve of Persian court dress covering the hand, as a separate word, probably a loanword.[7][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 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
  4. ^ a b c Микенско-русский словарь (Mycenaean–Russian dictionary)
  5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth, eds. (2002–2010), Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ 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. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
  12. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  14. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  15. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge