κάμαξ

Ancient Greek

FWOTD – 29 August 2022

Etymology

Furnée compares the word with ἀμάκιον (amákion). According to Beekes, the suffix "-ακ-" is highly frequent in Pre-Greek, and he considers the word to derive from such, rejecting traditional connections to Proto-Germanic *hamô (“rod, shaft”).[1]

Pronunciation

 

Noun

κάμαξ • (kámax) f (genitive κάμᾰκος); third declension

  1. vine pole, prop
    • 3rd century BCE, Leonidas of Tarentum, chapter 731, in Greek Anthology, Book VII‎[1]:
      ἄμπελος ὣς ἤδη κάμακι στηρίζομαι αὐτῷ σκηπανίῳ
      ámpelos hṑs ḗdē kámaki stērízomai autōî skēpaníōi
      I am already supported only by a prop like a vine
  2. any pole or shaft
  3. tiller
  4. (in the plural) steering paddles
  5. tent pole
  6. perch for fowls

Inflection

Third declension of ἡ κάμᾰξ; τῆς κάμᾰκος (Attic)
Case / # Singular Dual Plural
Nominative ἡ κάμᾰξ
hē kámăx 		τὼ κάμᾰκε
tṑ kámăke 		αἱ κάμᾰκες
hai kámăkes
Genitive τῆς κάμᾰκος
tês kámăkos 		τοῖν καμᾰ́κοιν
toîn kamắkoin 		τῶν καμᾰ́κων
tôn kamắkōn
Dative τῇ κάμᾰκῐ
tēî kámăkĭ 		τοῖν καμᾰ́κοιν
toîn kamắkoin 		ταῖς κάμᾰξῐ / κάμᾰξῐν
taîs kámăxĭ(n)
Accusative τὴν κάμᾰκᾰ
tḕn kámăkă 		τὼ κάμᾰκε
tṑ kámăke 		τᾱ̀ς κάμᾰκᾰς
tā̀s kámăkăs
Vocative κάμᾰξ
kámăx 		κάμᾰκε
kámăke 		κάμᾰκες
kámăkes
Notes:
  • This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κάμαξ, -ακος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 629

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.