κίστη

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Of unknown substrate origin, traced back to Proto-Indo-European *kisteh₂ (“woven container”) only with Middle Irish cess (“basket, causeway of wickerwork, beehive”), Old Welsh cest (“basket”).^[1] Bernal suggests, with formal problems as usual, borrowing from Egyptian qrsw (“coffin”) or qrst (“burial”).^[2]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /kís.tɛː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈkis.te̝/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈcis.ti/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈcis.ti/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈcis.ti/

Noun

κῐ́στη • (kĭ́stē) f (genitive κῐ́στης); first declension

box, chest, casket

Inflection

First declension of ἡ κῐ́στη; τῆς κῐ́στης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κῐ́στη hē kĭ́stē	τὼ κῐ́στᾱ tṑ kĭ́stā	αἱ κῐ́σται hai kĭ́stai
Genitive	τῆς κῐ́στης tês kĭ́stēs	τοῖν κῐ́σταιν toîn kĭ́stain	τῶν κῐστῶν tôn kĭstôn
Dative	τῇ κῐ́στῃ tēî kĭ́stēi	τοῖν κῐ́σταιν toîn kĭ́stain	ταῖς κῐ́σταις taîs kĭ́stais
Accusative	τὴν κῐ́στην tḕn kĭ́stēn	τὼ κῐ́στᾱ tṑ kĭ́stā	τᾱ̀ς κῐ́στᾱς tā̀s kĭ́stās
Vocative	κῐ́στη kĭ́stē	κῐ́στᾱ kĭ́stā	κῐ́σται kĭ́stai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

→ Latin: cista
- Asturian: cesta
- Catalan: cista
- → English: cist (learned)
- French: ciste
- Galician: cesta
- → German: Ziste
- Italian: cesta; → cista (learned)
- Portuguese: cesta → cista (learned)
- Romansch: cesta, chaista, chista
- Spanish: cesta
  - → Basque: zesta
    - → Catalan: cesta
- → Proto-West Germanic: *kistu (see there for further descendants)
  - English: chest

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κίστη”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 705
^ Bernal, Martin (2006) Black Athena. Volume III. The Linguistic Evidence, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 447

“κίστη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“κίστη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“κίστη”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
κίστη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
κίστη in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
κίστη, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κίστη”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 705

[2] Bernal, Martin (2006) Black Athena. Volume III. The Linguistic Evidence, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, →ISBN, page 447

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