κύων

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /ký.ɔːn/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈcy.on/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈcy.on/^[1]

Forms

κῠ́ων (kúōn) m or f (genitive κῠνός); third declension^[1] Genitive κυνός, accusative κύνα, vocative κύον; dative plural κυσί, epic κύνεσσι.^[2][3] Mycenaean ku-na-ke-ta, “dog-leader, huntsman”.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (“dog”), the Indo-European name of the dog, kept in most of the daughter languages.^[1][4][5] Greek preserves the old inflection, nominative κύων and genitive κυνός, like Sanskrit श्वन् (śván) (genitive śúnas) and Lithuanian šuõ (genitive šuñs), and its accent is the oldest.^[4][5] The final -ν of the nominative was restored from the other cases.^[1] The paradigm is unusual in having no old e-grade.^[4]

Other cognates are Hittite kuwan- “dog-man” and Hieroglyphic Luwian zuwan(i)- “dog”, Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍃 (hunds) and English hound, and Latin canis, whose -a- is hard to explain.^[4][6][1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found on the Mycenaean tablets in ku-na-ke-ta, “huntsman”.^[4] In Homer it is the dog, as watchdog and sheepdog and most often as hound; it is also a word of abuse for shameless women, as when Helen calls herself a dog, and for reckless men.^[2][8][3] The Iliad calls Sirius the “dog of Orion”, and the Odyssey uses it for a sea creature, perhaps a dogfish.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Classical writers praise Laconian and Indian hounds.^[2] The dog gave many proverbs: “to flog a flayed dog”, of wasted effort, “the dog in the manger”, and “it is hard to let a dog taste blood”.^[2] Socrates swore “by the dog”.^[2][3]

Figuratively a person could be a watchdog: Aeschylus calls Agamemnon “watchdog of the fold” and Clytemnestra “watchdog of the house”, and politicians were called watchdogs of the people.^[2][3] Hounds of the gods were the Erinyes, the Sphinx and Zeus's eagle, his “winged hound”.^[3][7] Diogenes was “the Dog”, and the Cynic philosophers took their name from κύων through κυνικός (kunikós).^[3][2][4]

In the Septuagint it is the dog, a term of contempt for enemies, and once a male prostitute.^[9] In the New Testament dogs lick sores, the dog returns to its vomit, and “do not give what is holy to the dogs”.^[10][2]

In Modern Greek κύων (kíon) is a learned word, mainly in set phrases and as the name of two constellations; the everyday word for a dog is σκύλος.^[11]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – The tablets have ku-na-ke-ta, “huntsman”.^[4]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for dogs and as a term of abuse.^[2][8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for a watchdog of the house.^[2][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato's Socrates swears “by the dog”.^[2][12]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle calls Diogenes “the Dog”.^[3][2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament warns not to give what is holy to the dogs.^[2][10]
• Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word; the everyday word is σκύλος.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dog or bitch; a hound.^[2][3]
2. (abusive) A shameless person.^[2][3]
3. (figurative) A watchdog, a guardian.^[2][3]
4. A hound of a god, as the Erinyes or Zeus's eagle.^[3]
5. A Cynic philosopher; ὁ κύων, Diogenes.^[2][3]
6. The Dog-star, Sirius.^[3]
7. A sea creature, perhaps a dogfish.^[3]
8. (Septuagint) A male prostitute.^[9]

Word family

• ἁπλοκύων (haplokúōn)
• δοκεύω (dokeúō)
• ἐκκυνέω (ekkunéō)
• ἐκκυνηγέσσω (ekkunēgéssō)
• ἐκκυνηγετέω (ekkunēgetéō)
• ἔκκυνος (ékkunos)
• κυναγέτας (kunagétas)
• κυναγέω (kunagéō)
• κυναγία (kunagía)
• κυναγός (kunagós)
• κυνάγχης (kunánkhēs)
• κυναγωγός (kunagōgós)
• κυναλώπηξ (kunalṓpēx)
• κυνάμυια (kunámuia)
• κυνικός (kunikós)
• κυνηγέτης (kunēgétēs)
• κυνέη (kunéē)

Related words

• Latin canis
• English cynic

Usage notes

Hesychius records other senses: the spark flying from beaten iron, an Erinys, a disease and the penis.^[13]

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 h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
8. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b 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
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)