κῦμα

Forms

κῦμᾰ (kûma) n (genitive κῡ́μᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a verbal noun in ⟨-μα⟩ from Ancient Greek κύω (kúō, “to conceive, be pregnant”), the verb also found as κυέω (kuéō).^[2][1][3] In the sense “foetus” this is plainly the case.^[2][4] Beekes thinks that the older and more common sense, “wave”, may also come from the idea of “swelling”, comparing οἶδμα (oîdma, “swell of the sea”).^[2] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱewh₁- (“to swell”);^[1][5] the Etygram project, following Beekes, calls κυέω an exact match of a Vedic verb meaning “to grow strong”.^[6] Frisk notes that either the verb had already widened from “be pregnant” to “swell” in Indo-European times, or the reverse.^[4]

Ancient grammarians also derived it from κύω: Orion (5th century AD) explains κῦμα as a shortening of κύημα (kúēma), and reports that others took it from κυκάω (kukáō, “to stir”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, of the waves of the sea and also of rivers: the Iliad speaks of the wave of the sea and of the surging current of a river.^[3][7] In the plural and as a collective singular it is the swell or surge of the sea.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Tragedy used the wave as an image: a “wave” of attacking warriors in Aeschylus, and waves of ruin, troubles or passion.^[3][7] To speak to someone in vain was to soothe a wave, and “kicking against the wave” was futile resistance; counting the waves was a figure for the uncountable.^[3][7] Beside the sea sense, κῦμα kept the literal sense of its verb: in Aeschylus and Euripides it is a foetus, and in Theophrastus and Galen a young sprout.^[3][2] In architecture it named a wave-shaped moulding,^[3] and Latin borrowed the word as Latin cyma.^[8]

The Septuagint and the New Testament use it only of sea waves.^[9][10][11] Medieval Greek kept the word, which still has its form and sense in Pontic.^[12] It is continued by Modern Greek κύμα (kýma); some of its figurative senses, such as a heat wave or a wave of feeling, are learned meanings modelled on French vague, onde and English wave.^[13]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for the waves of the sea and of rivers.^[3][7][14]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod has it in the Theogony and the Works and Days.^[14][15]
• 5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it for a flood of attacking soldiers and for a foetus.^[3][7]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it collectively for the swell of the sea.^[3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for the young sprout of a plant.^[3][2][15]
• 5th century AD – The grammarian Orion derives it from κύω “to conceive”.^[6]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek κύμα (kýma) is the ordinary word for a wave.^[13][16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wave, billow, of the sea, a lake or a river.^[3][7]
2. The flow or current of a river.^[7]
3. (plural and collective singular) The swell or surge of the sea.^[7][3]
4. (figurative) A wave of attacking warriors, of disaster, troubles or passion.^[3][7]
5. (architecture) A wave-shaped moulding, the cyma.^[3]
6. A foetus, embryo.^[3][7][2]
7. The young sprout of a plant, especially of a cabbage.^[3]

Word family

• κυμαίνω (kūmaínō)
• κυμάτιον (kūmátion)

Related words

• κυέω (kuéō)
• κύημα (kúēma)
• Latin cyma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
6. ^ a b c Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
9. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ 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. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
12. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
13. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
14. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
15. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
16. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας