κύμβη

Forms

κύμβη (kúmbē) f (genitive κύμβης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, following Furnée, who compares κύπη (kúpē, “a kind of ship”) (Hesychius); the variation between π and β and the prenasalization (-μβ- beside -β-) are features of Pre-Greek words.^[2][3] Hesychius' κόμβος (kómbos, “drinking cup”) would show the Pre-Greek variation of υ and ο.^[3]

It has long been compared with Sanskrit कुम्भ (kumbhá, “pot”), Avestan xumba- (“pot”) and Celtic vessel names such as Middle Irish comm.^[2][4] Such a word cannot be inherited from Indo-European, since the sequence *kumb(h)- needs either a *b, which Indo-European lacked, or a plain and an aspirated stop in one root, which is impossible.^[2] Beekes, Frisk and Chantraine therefore see a wandering word, which suits the name of a vessel.^[2][4][5]

Rosół takes it as a Semitic loanword, from the word for a cup seen in Akkadian qabūtu (“bowl, drinking vessel”) and in Ugaritic, Hebrew, Phoenician and Aramaic, and points to the Cypriot form κύββα (kúbba, “cup”) reported by Athenaeus: -ββ- would have been dissimilated to -μβ-, as in λαμπάς (lampás).^[6] He counts the Indo-Iranian comparison as problematic.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is a fragment of Sophocles, where it is a boat: ἵπποισιν ἢ κύμβαισι ναυστολεῖς χθόνα, “do you travel to the land on horseback or by boat?”^[7][8][2]

Semantic evolution

From the 2nd century BC it is a drinking cup or bowl, in Nicander and in the glossary of Philemon quoted by Athenaeus.^[7][2] Hesychius explains it as a kind of ship, a vinegar cup and a knapsack.^[9][7] Pliny the Elder calls the small boat a Phoenician invention.^[7][10] The masculine κύμβος (kúmbos) meant a hollow vessel, and the diminutive κυμβίον (kumbíon) a small cup, in Attic inscriptions and comedy, and a small boat in the lexica.^[2][5] The same word gave κύμβαλον (kúmbalon), the hollow cymbal.^[2][4] It was borrowed as Latin cymba, a small boat.^[2][11]

It is recorded in medieval Greek, and dialects still have it as κύμπη (kýmpi) and τζύμπη (tzýmpi).^[12] In Modern Greek κύμβη is a nautical term for a short, broad boat and for a folding boat.^[13]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it for a boat.^[7][2][14]
• 2nd century BC – Nicander uses it for a drinking cup or bowl.^[7][2][14]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Athenaeus quotes Philemon's glossary for the cup.^[7][15][14]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius explains it as a ship, a vinegar cup and a knapsack.^[9][14]
• 1100–1669 – A vernacular chronicle uses it.^[12]
• Modern Greek – It is a nautical term for kinds of small boat.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hollow vessel: a drinking cup, a bowl.^[7][1]
2. A small boat.^[7][2]
3. A knapsack or wallet.^[7][9]

Word family

• κύμβος (kúmbos)
• κυμβίον (kumbíon)
• κύμβαλον (kúmbalon)

Related words

• κύπη (kúpē)
• κύπελλον (kúpellon)
• Latin cymba

Usage notes

The Etymologicum Magnum records another κύμβη as a synonym of κύβη (kúbē, “head”).^[7][2] Frisk and Beekes suggest it may be the same word as the cup, with the shift seen in Latin testa 'pot', which became French tête 'head', and Beekes takes the pair κύμβη / κύβη as proof of Pre-Greek origin.^[2][4][7] Empedocles has a bird of this name, perhaps the tumbler pigeon; it remains unidentified.^[2][7][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, ed. Stefan Norbruis, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
9. ^ a b c Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
10. ^ Smith, William; Wayte, William; Marindin, G. E., eds. (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 3rd ed., London: John Murray
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 Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
14. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
15. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
16. ^ Scarborough, Matthew (2025), PHILOGLOSSA: database of Pre-Greek and other non-Indo-European words in Ancient Greek, version 1.0