κόμβος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

The old comparisons with Lithuanian kabi̇̀nti (“to hang, hook on”), Proto-Slavic *skobà (“bracket”) and, within Greek, σκαμβός (skambós, “crooked”) are quite dubious. The form κομποθηλεία (kompothēleía) clearly shows that there was a variant with -π-, which points to Pre-Greek origin.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /kóm.bos/ → /ˈkom.bos/ → /ˈkom.bos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /kóm.bos/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈkom.bos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈkom.bos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈkom.bos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈkom.bos/

Noun

κόμβος • (kómbos) m (genitive κόμβου); second declension

1. roll, band, girth

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ κόμβος; τοῦ κόμβου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ κόμβος ho kómbos	τὼ κόμβω tṑ kómbō	οἱ κόμβοι hoi kómboi
Genitive	τοῦ κόμβου toû kómbou	τοῖν κόμβοιν toîn kómboin	τῶν κόμβων tôn kómbōn
Dative	τῷ κόμβῳ tōî kómbōi	τοῖν κόμβοιν toîn kómboin	τοῖς κόμβοις toîs kómbois
Accusative	τὸν κόμβον tòn kómbon	τὼ κόμβω tṑ kómbō	τοὺς κόμβους toùs kómbous
Vocative	κόμβε kómbe	κόμβω kómbō	κόμβοι kómboi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• ἐγκομβόομαι (enkombóomai)
• κομβίον (kombíon)
• κομβοθηλεία (kombothēleía)
• κομβολύτης (kombolútēs)
• κομβόω (kombóō)
• κόμβωμα (kómbōma)

Descendants

• Greek: > κόμπος (kómpos) (inherited), → κόμβος (kómvos) (learned)

Further reading

• “κόμβος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• κόμβος in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• 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