κέντρον

From Proto-Indo-European *ḱent-r-om (“pointed tool”), from *ḱent- (“to prick; point”); direct cognate with Albanian çandër (“forked pole”) and probably Old Armenian սանտր (santr), սանդր (sandr, “comb”).

Equivalent to κεντέω (kentéō, “I sting”) +‎ -τρον (-tron).^[1]

κέντρον • (kéntron) n (genitive κέντρου); second declension

1. Something with a sharp point: point, spike, spur
2. sting, quill, thorn
3. Torture device or instrument of motivation: whip, goad
4. nail, rivet
5. stationary point of a pair of compasses
6. center of a circle
7. (figuratively, vulgar) penis
   • Sotades on Ptolemy II's incestuous marriage, cited by Plutarch, De liberis educandis 11a, and Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 14.621a:

     εἰς οὐχ ὁσίην τρυμαλιὴν τὸ κέντρον ὠθεῖς.

     eis oukh hosíēn trumaliḕn tò kéntron ōtheîs.

     You're sticking your prick in an unholy hole.

• κεστός (kestós)

• → Aramaic:

  Classical Syriac: ܩܢܛܪܘܢ (qenṭrōn, qanṭrōn)

• → Georgian: კენტრო (ḳenṭro)
• Greek: κέντρο (kéntro)
• → Latin: centrum (see there for further descendants)
• → Old Armenian: կենդրովն (kendrovn), կենտրովն (kentrovn), կենտրոն (kentron)
  • Armenian: կենտրոն (kentron), կեդրոն (kedron)
• → Sanskrit: केन्द्र (kendra) (see there for further descendants)

• “κέντρον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “κέντρον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “κέντρον”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• κέντρον 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
• κέντρον in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “κέντρον”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G2759 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• κέντρον 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, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • barb idem, page 62.
  • goad idem, page 365.
  • incentive idem, page 427.
  • incitement idem, page 428.
  • pang idem, page 591.
  • peg idem, page 602.
  • point idem, page 623.
  • prick idem, page 640.
  • rowel idem, page 723.
  • smart idem, page 786.
  • spur idem, page 806.
  • stimulant idem, page 817.
  • stimulus idem, page 817.
  • sting idem, page 817.