κῆδος

Forms

κῆδος (kêdos) n (genitive κήδους or κήδεος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *kā́dos, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ḱéh₂dos, an s-stem noun from *ḱeh₂d- (“care, grief”).^[1][2][3][4] Doric κᾶδος (kâdos) keeps the old long /aː/.^[2][5]

An r-stem from the same root is seen in Avestan sādra- (“grief, pain, disaster”).^[2][3] Celtic and Germanic have nouns of the same root, often with the sense “hate”: Middle Irish cais (“hate, love”), Middle Welsh cawdd (“offence, anger”) and Old English hete (“hate”);^[2][1] the Germanic words have the zero grade of the root, so they too point to an old s-stem.^[2] Thieme found the s-stem in an obscure Sanskrit compound, which he took to mean “caring for the stranger”, but this remains uncertain.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the Iliad on, above all in the plural, of the sorrows and troubles that befall people, and also of concern or care for someone.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

Care for the dead made it the word for mourning, in Archilochus, Stesichorus and Pindar, and then for the funeral itself in Herodotus, Euripides and Isocrates.^[5] Care for one's family gave a second line: from Pindar and Herodotus on it means connection by marriage, and Euripides uses it simply of a marriage or a match;^[5][2] Aeschylus plays on its two senses, grief and marriage.^[5] Its derivative κηδεστής (kēdestḗs) means a relative by marriage.^[2] The old superlative κήδιστος (kḗdistos) meant “closest, dearest”.^[2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for sorrows, cares and concern for someone.^[5][6][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for sorrows.^[5][7]
• 7th century BC – Archilochus uses it for mourning.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for a funeral and for a connection by marriage.^[5]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it of a marriage.^[5]
• 4th century BC – Isocrates and Aristotle use it for funeral rites.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Concern or compassion for a person.^[5][6]
2. Sorrow, grief.^[5][6]
3. Mourning for the dead.^[5]
4. A funeral, funeral rites.^[5][2]
5. Something one cares about; a preoccupation.^[5]
6. A cause of concern; a threat.^[5]
7. A cause of sorrow, an affliction, a misfortune.^[5]
8. Connection by marriage, affinity; a marriage, a match.^[5][2]

Word family

• ἐπικήδειος (epikḗdeios)
• κηδεία (kēdeíā)
• κήδειος (kḗdeios)
• κηδεμονεύς (kēdemoneús)
• κηδεμονία (kēdemonía)
• κηδεμονικός (kēdemonikós)
• κηδεμών (kēdemṓn)
• κηδεστής (kēdestḗs)
• κηδεστία (kēdestía)
• κήδευμα (kḗdeuma)
• κηδεύω (kēdeúō)
• κηδοσύνη (kēdosúnē)
• κηδόσυνος (kēdósunos)
• κήδω (kḗdō)

Related words

• κήδιστος (kḗdistos)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b c d Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux