σκεῦος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kew- (“to perform, commit or to cut, hew, equip”). Compare Proto-Germanic *hawjaną, Proto-Slavic *kutiti.

Pronunciation

Noun

σκεῦος • (skeûos) n (genitive σκεύους); third declension

1. a vessel, implement
   • 411 BCE, Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 402
   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.128
   • 424 BCE, Aristophanes, The Knights 983
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 596B
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 373A
   1. (in the plural) outfit, gear, utensils, chattels, equipment, baggage, luggage, tackle
      • 421 BCE, Aristophanes, Peace 1318
      • 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, On the Property of Aristophanes 31
      • 421 BCE, Aristophanes, Peace 552
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.13
      • 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 9.17.3
      • 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, On Stones 42
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.31
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 4.5.55
      • 405 BCE, Aristophanes, The Frogs 12.15
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.13.6
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Hellenica 5.4.17
      • 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Critias 117D
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laches 183E
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Oeconomicus 8.11
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 46.1
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Evergus and Mnesibulus 19
      • New Testament, Acts of the Apostles 27:17
   2. an inanimate object, a thing
      • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 601D
      • 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 506D
      • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Democritus, Collected Works 159
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Rhetoric 1407B.8
      • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 13.5.7
      • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 15.25.1
      • New Testament, Acts of the Apostles 9:15
2. the body, as the vessel of the soul
   • 55 CE – 56 CE, Paul the Apostle, Second Epistle to the Corinthians 4:7
   • New Testament, First Epistle to the Thessalonians 4:4
   • New Testament, First Epistle of Peter 3:7
3. genitalia
   • 175 CE – 235 CE, Claudius Aelianus, On the Nature of Animals 17.11

Inflection

Derived terms

Related terms

• σκευή (skeuḗ)

Descendants

• → Gothic: 𐌺𐌰𐍃 (kas) (semantic loan)

References

• “σκεῦος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• σκεῦος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• G4632 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • art idem, page 42.
  • article idem, page 42.
  • commodity idem, page 148.
  • implement idem, page 421.
  • thing idem, page 867.
  • utensil idem, page 941.
  • work idem, page 988.
• 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
• Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 3, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, pages 950–951