κόκκος Ancient Greek · revision 3256

+ {{infobox|confidence=uncertain|formation=borrowing|attested=Homeric Hymn to Demeter|origins=qfa-sub-grc}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /kók.kos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈko.kos/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈko.kos/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''κόκκος''' (kókkos) ''m'' (genitive κόκκου); second declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ The origin is unknown.^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960) Beekes thinks it probably Pre-Greek, [[der|qfa-sub-grc|-]], and Frisk a loanword, noting the popular doubling of the consonant.^(Beekes 2010)^(Frisk 1960) Alessio compared [[es|cuesco|t=stone of a fruit]] and supposed a Mediterranean ⟨*kosko-⟩, but Furnée rejected this.^(Beekes 2010)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'' uses it for the pomegranate seed that Hades gives Persephone to eat.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ It was a grain or seed of any kind: of the pomegranate in Herodotus, of the poppy, pine and wheat, and in the New Testament the mustard seed and the grain of wheat.^(LSJ 1940)^(BDAG 2000)^(CGL 2021) Timon wrote of a man with “not a grain of sense”.^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ From the 4th century BC it was the “berry” of the kermes oak, really the bodies of a scale insect, which gave a scarlet dye; hence it meant scarlet itself, and the oak.^(LSJ 1940)^(BDAG 2000)^(Beekes 2010) Medical writers used it for a pill and a small measure, poets for the testicles, and Hesychius records it for the female parts.^(LSJ 1940)^(Hesychius)

+

+ Its derivative [[κόκκινος|tr=kókkinos|t=scarlet]] gave Modern Greek its everyday word for “red”.^(Beekes 2010)^(Triantafyllidis 1998) Latin borrowed it as [[m|la|coccum]].^(Wiktionary) Modern Greek [[m|el|κόκκος|tr=kókkos]] is a learned word for a grain or particle, and through New Latin ''coccus'' for a kind of bacterium.^(Triantafyllidis 1998)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 7th–6th century BC (probably) – The ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'' uses it for a pomegranate seed.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ * 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for pomegranate seeds.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ * 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for the kermes “berry” used for scarlet dye.^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010)

+ * 1st century AD – The Gospels use it for the mustard seed and the grain of wheat.^(BDAG 2000)^(CGL 2021)

+ * 1st century AD – Dioscorides uses it for the kermes oak.^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A grain, [[m|en|seed]] or [[m|en|kernel]], especially of the pomegranate.^(LSJ 1940)^(CGL 2021)

+ # The “berry” of the [[m|en|kermes]] oak, used for [[m|en|scarlet]] dye; the colour scarlet.^(LSJ 1940)^(BDAG 2000)

+ # The kermes oak, ''Quercus coccifera''.^(LSJ 1940)^(Beekes 2010)

+ # ''(medicine)'' A pill; a small measure.^(LSJ 1940)

+ # ''(plural)'' The testicles.^(LSJ 1940)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[κόκκινος|tr=kókkinos]]

+ * [[κόκκαλος|tr=kókkalos]]

+ * [[κοκκοθραύστης|tr=kokkothraústēs]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[la|coccum]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}