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 Proto-Kurdish [Term?] (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

 

Noun

κολοκῠ́νθη • (kolokŭ́nthēf (genitive κολοκῠ́νθης); first declension

  1. bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)
  2. round gourd

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Greek: κολοκύθα (kolokýtha)

References

  1. ^ 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

Further reading