κρέξ
Ancient Greek
Etymology
An onomatopoeic origin is quite possible. According to Beekes, perhaps from a Proto-Indo-European root common to Russian кре́чет (kréčet, “gyrfalcon”), Irish cearc (“hen”) and Old Prussian kerko (“diver, loon”). The word has been compared with κερκάς (kerkás, “crake”), κερκιθαλίς (kerkithalís, “stork”) and κέρκνος (kérknos, “hawk or cock”).
Pronunciation
- (5th BCE Attic) IPA(key): /kréks/
- (1st CE Egyptian) IPA(key): /kreks/
- (4th CE Koine) IPA(key): /kreks/
- (10th CE Byzantine) IPA(key): /kreks/
- (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA(key): /kreks/
Noun
κρέξ • (kréx) f (genitive κρεκός); third declension
- long-legged bird, perhaps:
- corncrake (Crex crex)
- ruff (Philomachus pugnax)
- name of ill omen to the newly married
- noisy braggart
Declension
Third declension of ἡ κρέξ; τῆς κρεκός (Attic)
Case / # | Singular | Dual | Plural | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nominative | ἡ κρέξ hē kréx | τὼ κρέκε tṑ kréke | αἱ κρέκες hai krékes | ||||||||||
Genitive | τῆς κρεκός tês krekós | τοῖν κρεκοῖν toîn krekoîn | τῶν κρεκῶν tôn krekôn | ||||||||||
Dative | τῇ κρεκῐ́ têi krekí | τοῖν κρεκοῖν toîn krekoîn | ταῖς κρεξῐ́ / κρεξῐ́ν taîs krexí(n) | ||||||||||
Accusative | τὴν κρέκᾰ tḕn kréka | τὼ κρέκε tṑ kréke | τᾱ̀ς κρέκᾰς tā̀s krékas | ||||||||||
Vocative | κρέξ kréx | κρέκε kréke | κρέκες krékes | ||||||||||
Notes: |
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Descendants
- → Translingual: Crex
Further reading
- “κρέξ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- κρέξ 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