κύκυον

Forms

κύκυον (kúkuon), the form Hesychius glosses with the accusative σικυόν (sikuón).^[1][2]

Etymology

Beekes counts it among the many variants of σικυός (sikuós, “cucumber”) and σικύα (sikúa, “gourd”), with σεκούα (sekoúa) and κυκύϊζα (kukúïza, “sweet gourd”), a variety that makes him consider the whole group Pre-Greek, perhaps also found in Latin cucumis (“cucumber”).^[3] Chæréphon also compares the Latin word.^[2] PHILOGLOSSA rates the reliability of this connection as very low.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded only by Hesychius, who glosses it as “the cucumber”.^[1][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The cucumber, the same as σικυός (sikuós).^[1][2]

Related words

• σικυός (sikuós)
• σικύα (sikúa)
• Latin cucumis

References

1. ^ a b c Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
2. ^ a b c Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica
3. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0