Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
κύρβεις. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
κύρβεις, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
κύρβεις in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
κύρβεις you have here. The definition of the word
κύρβεις will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
κύρβεις, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Ancient Greek
Etymology
As a technical expression, suspected of being a loan, perhaps from Pre-Greek. According to Beekes, the older connection with καρπός (karpós, “wrist”) is unacceptable. Fick and Kretschmer also adduced Κύρβαντες (Kúrbantes), which would have been named after their whirling dances.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kýr.beːs/ → /ˈcyr.βis/ → /ˈcir.vis/
Proper noun
κῠ́ρβεις • (kúrbeis) f (genitive κῠ́ρβεων); third declension
- (at Athens) triangular tablets, forming a three-sided pyramid, turning on a pivot, upon which the early laws were inscribed
- (later) all pillars or tablets with inscriptions
- (figuratively) the Pillars of Hercules
- (figuratively) pettifogging lawyer, as if a walking statute book
Inflection
Further reading
- “κύρβεις”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “κύρβεις”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
- κύρβεις in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κύρβεις”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 806