κώμη

Forms

κώμη (kṓmē) f (genitive κώμης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2] It was long compared with Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍃 (haims, “village”) and Lithuanian káimas (“village”), through a lengthened-grade form Proto-Indo-European *ḱōymeh₂, a group to which Latin cīvis (“citizen”) has also been attached.^[2][3][1] Beekes rejects the reconstruction because such lengthened-grade formations cannot be explained in Proto-Indo-European terms, and he leaves the word unexplained.^[2][1] Chantraine finds the frequent link with κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie”) of little sense, and mentions L. R. Palmer's idea of a root Proto-Indo-European *kei- (“to divide”), comparing Mycenaean Greek ke-ke-me-na and δῆμος (dêmos).^[3][4]

The grammarian Philoxenus derived it from a verb “to lie down”, as if the village were the place where men and animals rest when they come back from the fields.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Hesiod, meaning a village.^[2][6][7] In the Shield of Heracles it is an unwalled village, as opposed to a fortified town.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

In Herodotus and Thucydides the word is the open village, opposed to the walled city: early Greeks are said to have lived scattered in villages.^[6][8] In Isocrates and Plato it can also mean a quarter or ward of a city.^[6][8][3] Aristotle reports that the Dorians used it for what Athenians called a δῆμος (dêmos), and connected it with the name of comedy, κωμῳδία (kōmōidíā).^[6]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is the village or small town, set beside the city and the countryside.^[9][10] Medieval Greek kept it, with a genitive and dative formed after those of πόλις (pólis).^[11] In Modern Greek it is a learned word, used of the villages of antiquity.^[12][11][4]

Timeline

• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it of an unwalled village.^[6][7][13]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and Thucydides describe early peoples living scattered in villages.^[6][13]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of a quarter of a city.^[6][8][13]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle says that it is the Dorian word for the Attic δῆμος.^[6][13]
• 1st century AD – The Gospels use it of villages, beside cities and fields.^[10]
• Modern Greek – It is a learned word, used of the ancient village.^[12][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A village, an unwalled settlement, as opposed to a fortified city.^[6][8]
2. A quarter or ward of a city.^[6][8]
3. (Koine) A village or small town, beside the city and the fields.^[10][9]

Word family

• κωμήτης (kōmḗtēs)
• κωμῆτις (kōmêtis)
• κωμόπολις (kōmópolis)
• κωμηδόν (kōmēdón)

Related words

• κῶμος (kômos)

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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
5. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b c 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 Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
12. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
13. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge