κύκνος

Forms

κύκνος (kúknos) m (genitive κύκνου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is perhaps inherited from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keuk- (“to shine, be white”), the swan being named after its colour.^[2][1][3] The root is reconstructed in this form by Lubotsky; it was formerly written *ḱeuk-.^[2] Cognate with Sanskrit शोचति (śócati, “to shine, glow”) and Sanskrit शुक्र (śukrá, “bright, white”).^[2][1] Wiktionary adds that the name could also imitate the swan's call.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on.^[2][4] The Iliad compares the Greek army to flocks of long-necked swans in a meadow.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The swan was sacred to Apollo and famous for its song, and it was said to sing most beautifully before its death.^[7][5] In Aeschylus' Agamemnon a woman is said to have sung her last lament “like a swan”, and later epigrams call a poet a swan.^[5]

By its curved shape the word named a kind of ship, after its prow, and by its white colour an eye-salve in Galen.^[5][2] Latin borrowed it as cycnus.^[8] Medieval Greek kept the word, and in Modern Greek κύκνος (kýknos) is a learned form of the ancient word.^[9][10]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad mentions flocks of long-necked swans.^[5][6]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus compares a woman's dying lament to a swan's song.^[5][11]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Plato call the swan Apollo's bird.^[5][11]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses it for a white eye-salve.^[5][11]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word for the swan.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A swan.^[5][7]
2. (figurative) A bard or poet.^[5]
3. A kind of ship, probably named after its swan-necked prow.^[5][2]
4. (medicine) A white eye-salve.^[5][2]

Word family

• κύκνειος (kúkneios)

Related words

• Latin cycnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ 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 j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
7. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge