κύω

Forms

κῠ́ω (kúō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a later present beside from Ancient Greek κυέω (kuéō, “to be pregnant”), made like the verbs in unaccented ⟨-ω⟩.^[2][3][4] The aorist middle, “to conceive”, is much older, and LIV takes it as a root aorist.^[5][4][6] The family goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“to swell”),^[1][4][5] and the older present matches Sanskrit श्वयति (śváyati, “swells, increases”), from *ḱuh₁-éye-.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The aorist middle, “to conceive”, is in Hesiod's Theogony; the present is first in Theognis, of a city “pregnant” with a tyrant.^[2][7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the present it means to be pregnant, of women and female animals, sometimes with an object, the child or litter carried.^[2][8] Aeschylus uses the active aorist causatively: the rain made the earth pregnant.^[2][8] Chantraine notes that Attic forms of the present can often be read as κυέω (kuéō), and Beekes puts the sure attestations from Aristotle and the Septuagint on.^[6][4]

It was used figuratively of a soul or a city “pregnant” with something.^[2][3] Medieval vernacular Greek still knew the word, and it lives on in some Modern Greek dialects.^[9]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony has the aorist “having conceived”.^[2][7]
• 6th century BC – Theognis has the present, of a city.^[2][7]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses the aorist of the rain impregnating the earth.^[2][8]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses the present.^[2][4]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian has a woman pregnant in her eighth month.^[2]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek still has it.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be pregnant; to conceive, of women and female animals.^[2][8]
2. (with accusative) To be pregnant with, carry in the womb.^[2][8]
3. (figurative) Of a city or a mind, to be big with something.^[2][8]
4. (aorist active, causative) To make pregnant, impregnate.^[2][8]
5. (aorist middle) To become pregnant, conceive.^[2][8]

Related words

• κυέω (kuéō)
• ἔγκυος (énkuos)
• κῦμα (kûma)

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
4. ^ a b c d e f 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
5. ^ a b c Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr