κολοκύνθη

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

κολόκῠνθᾰ (kolókŭnthă), κολόκῠνθος (kolókŭnthos), κολόκῠντος (kolókŭntos), κολοκῠ́ντη (kolokŭ́ntē), κολόκῠντᾱ (kolókŭntā)

Etymology

Based on the suffix, frequent in plant names of substrate origin, Beekes takes the word as Pre-Greek. The word has also been compared with Sanskrit कालिन्द (kālinda, “watermelon”) (which is traditionally considered to be named after the Hindu goddess Kali), as well as with Kurdish (kalak, “melon”), because an informant in Athenaeus says that it was introduced from India. This does not reveal much more about the word's origins, however.^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ko.lo.kýn.tʰɛː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ko.loˈkyn.tʰe̝/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ko.loˈcyn.θi/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ko.loˈcyn.θi/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ko.loˈcin.θi/

Noun

κολοκῠ́νθη • (kolokŭ́nthē) f (genitive κολοκῠ́νθης); first declension

bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)
round gourd

Inflection

First declension of ἡ κολοκῠ́νθη; τῆς κολοκῠ́νθης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κολοκῠ́νθη hē kolokŭ́nthē	τὼ κολοκῠ́νθᾱ tṑ kolokŭ́nthā	αἱ κολοκῠ́νθαι hai kolokŭ́nthai
Genitive	τῆς κολοκῠ́νθης tês kolokŭ́nthēs	τοῖν κολοκῠ́νθαιν toîn kolokŭ́nthain	τῶν κολοκῠνθῶν tôn kolokŭnthôn
Dative	τῇ κολοκῠ́νθῃ têi kolokŭ́nthēi	τοῖν κολοκῠ́νθαιν toîn kolokŭ́nthain	ταῖς κολοκῠ́νθαις taîs kolokŭ́nthais
Accusative	τὴν κολοκῠ́νθην tḕn kolokŭ́nthēn	τὼ κολοκῠ́νθᾱ tṑ kolokŭ́nthā	τᾱ̀ς κολοκῠ́νθᾱς tā̀s kolokŭ́nthās
Vocative	κολοκῠ́νθη kolokŭ́nthē	κολοκῠ́νθᾱ kolokŭ́nthā	κολοκῠ́νθαι kolokŭ́nthai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

κολοκυνθιάς (kolokunthiás)
κολοκύνθινος (kolokúnthinos)
κολοκυνθίς (kolokunthís)
κολοκυνθών (kolokunthṓn)

Descendants

Greek: κολοκύθα (kolokýtha)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κολοκύνθη”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 738-9