κέραμος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Unknown. Has long been compared to κεράννυμι (keránnumi, “to mix”), but could also be related to Latin cremō, Proto-West Germanic *herþ (English hearth), or Sanskrit कूडयति (kūḍayati, “to burn, scorch”). Beekes argues for a Pre-Greek or Anatolian origin. Compare Sanskrit कर्द (karda) and Sanskrit कर्दम (kardama).

Related is κερᾰμεύς (kerămeús, “potter”), which has a cognate in Mycenaean Greek 𐀐𐀨𐀕𐀄 (ke-ra-me-u /⁠kerameus⁠/) of the same meaning.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ké.ra.mos/ → /ˈce.ra.mos/ → /ˈce.ra.mos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ké.ra.mos/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈke.ra.mos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈce.ra.mos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈce.ra.mos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈce.ra.mos/

Noun

κέρᾰμος • (kérămos) m (genitive κερᾰ́μου); second declension

1. potter's clay
   • 360 BCE, Plato, Timaeus 60D
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Meteorology 384B.19
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Meteorology 380B.8
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Meteorology 383A.21
2. earthen vessel, pottery, wine-jar
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.469
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.96
   • 446 BCE – 386 BCE, Aristophanes, The Acharnians 902
   • 342 BCE – 290 BCE, Menander, The Girl from Samos 75
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.6
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 5.88
   • 375 BCE – 275 BCE, Alexis, The Fugitive 1.3
3. tile
   • 422 BCE, Aristophanes, The Wasps 1295
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 1127
   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.4
   • 5th century BC, Pherecrates, Fragmenta 130.6
   • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Herodas, Collected Works 3.44
   • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 8.26
   • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 9.824

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ κέρᾰμος; τοῦ κερᾰ́μου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ κέρᾰμος ho kérămos	τὼ κερᾰ́μω tṑ kerắmō	οἱ κέρᾰμοι hoi kérămoi
Genitive	τοῦ κερᾰ́μου toû kerắmou	τοῖν κερᾰ́μοιν toîn kerắmoin	τῶν κερᾰ́μων tôn kerắmōn
Dative	τῷ κερᾰ́μῳ tōî kerắmōi	τοῖν κερᾰ́μοιν toîn kerắmoin	τοῖς κερᾰ́μοις toîs kerắmois
Accusative	τὸν κέρᾰμον tòn kérămon	τὼ κερᾰ́μω tṑ kerắmō	τοὺς κερᾰ́μους toùs kerắmous
Vocative	κέρᾰμε kérăme	κερᾰ́μω kerắmō	κέρᾰμοι kérămoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• κερᾰμῐκός (kerămĭkós)
• κεράμῐνος (kerámĭnos)
• κεραμεύς (kerameús)
• κερᾰμῐ́ς (kerămĭ́s)

Further reading

• “κέραμος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “κέραμος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “κέραμος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• κέραμος in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001), A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• κέραμος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• G2766 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• κέραμος in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007), Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • clay idem, page 136.
  • crockery idem, page 185.
  • pot idem, page 629.
  • potter idem, page 629.
  • pottery idem, page 629.
  • roof idem, page 721.
  • slate idem, page 782.
  • tile idem, page 874.
  • tiling idem, page 874.
• 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