κάρκαρος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Uncertain. Seems to agree with Sanskrit कर्कर (karkara, “hard, firm”), but some of its relations (κάρχαρος (kárkharos), καρκίνος (karkínos), and κέρχνος (kérkhnos)) seem to hint at a Pre-Greek origin.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /kár.ka.ros/ → /ˈkar.ka.ros/ → /ˈkar.ka.ros/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /kár.ka.ros/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈkar.ka.ros/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈkar.ka.ros/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈkar.ka.ros/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈkar.ka.ros/

Adjective

κάρκαρος • (kárkaros) m (feminine κάρκαρα, neuter κάρκαρον); first/second declension

1. The meaning of this term is uncertain. Hesychius defines κάρκαροι (kárkaroi) as δεσμοί (desmoí, “bond”), τραχεῖς (trakheîs, “rough, jagged”), and κάρκαρα (kárkara) as μάνδρα (mándra, “enclosed space”), which agrees well with the attested κάρκαρον (kárkaron, “prison”)
   • Hesychius Κ

References

• κάρκαρος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• κάρκαρος in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN