κριθή

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

κρῖ (krî) — Epic

Etymology

Uncertain. Traditionally derived from a Proto-Indo-European *gʰérsdʰ-o/eh₂-, with cognates including Latin hordeum, Old High German gersta, but there are phonetic difficulties with this. Rather closer are Albanian drithë, Old Armenian գարի (gari), as if from a Proto-Indo-European *gʰr̥yo-. Or perhaps of Proto-Albanian/Illyrian origin, which may explain the vowel. Egyptian origin has also been considered. Beekes, not convinced by any proposal, suggests an old Wanderwort; others^[1] have suggested a substrate. He notes that the Epic form points to an original root noun *krītʰ-.^[2]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /kriː.tʰɛ̌ː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /kriˈtʰe̝/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /kriˈθi/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /kriˈθi/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /kriˈθi/

Noun

κρῑθή • (krīthḗ) f (genitive κρῑθῆς); first declension

(in the plural) barley
Synonym: ἀκοστή (akostḗ)
pustule on the eyelid, stye
barleycorn (unit of weight)
penis

Inflection

First declension of ἡ κρῑθή; τῆς κρῑθῆς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κρῑθή hē krīthḗ	τὼ κρῑθᾱ́ tṑ krīthā́	αἱ κρῑθαί hai krīthaí
Genitive	τῆς κρῑθῆς tês krīthês	τοῖν κρῑθαῖν toîn krīthaîn	τῶν κρῑθῶν tôn krīthôn
Dative	τῇ κρῑθῇ têi krīthêi	τοῖν κρῑθαῖν toîn krīthaîn	ταῖς κρῑθαῖς taîs krīthaîs
Accusative	τὴν κρῑθήν tḕn krīthḗn	τὼ κρῑθᾱ́ tṑ krīthā́	τᾱ̀ς κρῑθᾱ́ς tā̀s krīthā́s
Vocative	κρῑθή krīthḗ	κρῑθᾱ́ krīthā́	κρῑθαί krīthaí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ἄκριθος (ákrithos)
κρίθινος (kríthinos)

Descendants

→ English: crith

References

^ e.g. Demiraj, B. (1997) “drithë”, in Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz [Albanian Etymologies: […]] (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 7)‎^[1] (in German), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 145
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κριθή”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 779

“κριθή”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“κριθή”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“κριθή”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
κριθή in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
G2915 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
κριθή 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
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[2], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- barley idem, page 63.
- corn idem, page 174.

[1] .g. Demiraj, B. (1997) “drithë”, in Albanische Etymologien: Untersuchungen zum albanischen Erbwortschatz [Albanian Etymologies: […]] (Leiden Studies in Indo-European; 7)‎^[1] (in German), Amsterdam, Atlanta: Rodopi, page 145

[2] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κριθή”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 779

[1]

[2]