κώθων

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /kɔ̌ː.tʰɔːn/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈko.θon/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈko.θon/^[1]

Forms

κώθων (kṓthōn) m (genitive κώθωνος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

Beekes considers it probably Pre-Greek.^[2][1] Furnée compared it with κώδων (kṓdōn, “bell”) and with Kartvelian words for “cup”.^[2][1] For Chantraine the origin is unknown; some have thought of κύαθος (kúathos, “ladle”) or κηθίς (kēthís, “dice box”).^[3] The CGL calls the word apparently Laconian.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Archilochus, in the 7th century BC, is the first to name the cup.^[5][4][6]

Semantic evolution

It was a Laconian drinking cup, wide and flat with an inturned rim, used especially by soldiers on campaign (Archilochus, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Critias).^[5][3][4] Inscriptions list kothons of earthenware and of bronze.^[5] By metonymy it came to mean a drinking bout (Macho, Plutarch), and in the Septuagint a feast; at Thasos it named a religious banquet.^[5][7][4] The verb κωθωνίζομαι (kōthōnízomai), “to drink hard”, is in Aristotle.^[3]

In Sicily it was a fish name, the same as the κωβιός (kōbiós), the goby.^[2][5] Strabo and Appian give it as the name of the inner harbour of Carthage.^[5][3] It was borrowed as Coptic ⲕⲱⲑⲱⲛ (kōthōn), recorded in Sahidic from about AD 700.^[8]

Timeline

• 7th century BC – Archilochus names the cup.^[5][4][6]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes and Xenophon use it of the soldiers' cup.^[5][4][6]
• 2nd century BC – The Septuagint uses it of a feast.^[7][9]
• 1st century BC–1st century AD – Strabo uses it as the name of the inner harbour of Carthage.^[5][6]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of a drinking bout.^[5][4][6]
• About AD 700 – It is recorded as a loanword in Coptic.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Laconian drinking cup or mug, used especially by soldiers.^[5][4]
2. A drinking bout, carousal; a religious banquet.^[5][4][7]
3. (Sicilian) A fish, the goby.^[2][5]
4. The inner harbour of Carthage.^[5]
5. A kind of haircut.^[10][11]

Word family

• κωθωνίζομαι (kōthōnízomai)
• κωθώνιον (kōthṓnion)

Usage notes

Hesychius describes it as a large round cup, and glosses it also as a drunkard.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 c d 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
8. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Photius, Lexicon, ed. Christos Theodoridis, vol. 1 (Α–Δ) (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1982); ed. Richard Porson (Cambridge, 1822)
11. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
12. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)