κύτος

Uncertain. According to Beekes, derived from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“cover, skin”) (via a form *(s)kHu-t-); related to σκῦτος (skûtos, “hide, leather”), Latin cutis (“skin”), and English hide,^[1] but the presumed laryngeal metathesis is problematic. Alternatively from *kew- ~ *ḱew- (“hollow”), but this is also reconstructed as *ḱewh₁-. (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) In view of the formal problems and the word's semantic category, a substrate origin is possible.

κῠ́τος • (kŭ́tos) n (genitive κῠ́τους); third declension

1. a hollow
   • 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 495
   • 480 BCE – 406 BCE, Euripides, Fragments 185
   • 421 BCE, Aristophanes, Peace 1224
   • 458 BCE, Euripides, Electra 473
   • 480 BCE – 406 BCE, Euripides, Cyclops 399
   • 423 BCE, Euripides, The Suppliants 1202
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Com. 189
   • Xenarch. 1.10
   • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 16.3.4
2. any vessel; e.g. a jar, an urn, a vase, etc.
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, Agamemnon 322
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, Agamemnon 816
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1142
   • 413 BCE, Euripides, Ion 37
   • 408 BCE – 334 BCE, Antiphanes Comicus, Collected Works 52.2
3. (used of any hollow container) the occiput, the chest, a plant’s root, the uterus, an ox’s abomasum, the body in general, the trunk thereof, metaphorically the polis, etc.
   • 360 BCE, Plato, Timaeus 45a
   • 350 BCE, Aristotle, Parts of Animals 56b.26
   • 360 BCE, Plato, Timaeus 69e
   • Achae. 4.4
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Generation of Animals 742b.14
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Generation of Animals 741b.35
   • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Of the Uses of the Different Parts of the Human Body 14.14
   • 50 CE – 150 CE, Soranus, Collected Works 1.9
   • Phlp., in AP 0.417.14
   • 360 BCE, Plato, Timaeus 44a
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 12
   • 360 BCE, Plato, Timaeus 74a
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, History of Animals 491a.29
   • 350 BCE, Aristotle, Parts of Animals 686b.14
   • 36 BCE – 30 BCE, Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library 1.35
   • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 13.262
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 964e
   • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 5.59.8
   • 120 CE – 175 CE, Vettius Valens, Anthology 172.32

• → Greek: κύτος (kýtos)
• ⇒ Latin: monocytus (Taxonomic Latin)

• “κύτος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “κύτος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• κύτος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • ark idem, page 40.
  • belly idem, page 72.
  • body idem, page 87.
  • bowl idem, page 92.
  • cinerary urn idem, page 132.
  • cradle idem, page 181.
  • frame idem, page 342.
  • hollow idem, page 403.
  • husk idem, page 412.
  • jar idem, page 461.
  • pitcher idem, page 615.
  • shell idem, page 764.
  • skeleton idem, page 780.
  • trunk idem, page 898.
  • urn idem, page 940.
  • vessel idem, page 949.

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κύτος (kútos, “hollow vessel”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈci.tos/
• Hyphenation: κύ‧τος
• Homophone: κήτος (kítos)

κύτος • (kýtos) n (plural κύτη)

1. vessel (vase, jug, ewer, urn)
2. hold (of ship or aeroplane)

• κήτος n (kítos, “whale or dolphin”)
• κύτταρο n (kýttaro, “cell”)