κέντρον

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *kéntron, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱéntrom, from *ḱent- (“to prick; point”); direct cognate with Albanian çandër (“forked pole”) and probably Old Armenian սանտր (santr), սանդր (sandr, “comb”).

Equivalent to κεντέω (kentéō, “to sting”) +‎ -τρον (-tron, “tool suffix”).^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /kén.tron/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈken.tron/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈcen.tron/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈcen.tron/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈcen.dron/

Noun

κέντρον • (kéntron) n (genitive κέντρου); second declension

something with a sharp point: point, spike, spur
sting, quill, thorn (of bees and wasps)
- 422 BCE, Aristophanes, The Wasps 225
goad, oxgoad (used to prod animals or as torture device on humans)
nail, rivet
stationary point of a pair of compasses
(geometry) center of a circle
- 360 BCE, Plato, Timaeus 54e
(figuratively, vulgar) penis
- Sotades on Ptolemy II's incestuous marriage, cited by Plutarch, De liberis educandis 11a, and Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 14.621a:
  εἰς οὐχ ὁσίην τρυμαλιὴν τὸ κέντρον ὠθεῖς.
  eis oukh hosíēn trumaliḕn tò kéntron ōtheîs.
  You're sticking your prick in an unholy hole.

Inflection

Second declension of τὸ κέντρον; τοῦ κέντρου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ κέντρον tò kéntron	τὼ κέντρω tṑ kéntrō	τᾰ̀ κέντρᾰ tằ kéntră
Genitive	τοῦ κέντρου toû kéntrou	τοῖν κέντροιν toîn kéntroin	τῶν κέντρων tôn kéntrōn
Dative	τῷ κέντρῳ tōî kéntrōi	τοῖν κέντροιν toîn kéntroin	τοῖς κέντροις toîs kéntrois
Accusative	τὸ κέντρον tò kéntron	τὼ κέντρω tṑ kéntrō	τᾰ̀ κέντρᾰ tằ kéntră
Vocative	κέντρον kéntron	κέντρω kéntrō	κέντρᾰ kéntră
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

κεντρικός (kentrikós)

Related terms

κεστός (kestós)

Descendants

Greek: κέντρο (kéntro)
→ Aramaic:
Classical Syriac: ܩܢܛܪܘܢ (qenṭrōn, qanṭrōn)
→ Georgian: კენტრო (ḳenṭro)
→ Latin: centrum, centō (see there for further descendants)
→ Old Armenian: կենդրովն (kendrovn), կենտրովն (kentrovn), կենտրոն (kentron)
- Armenian: կենտրոն (kentron), կեդրոն (kedron)
→ Sanskrit: केन्द्र (kendra) (see there for further descendants)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “κεντέω”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 672-3: “DER > line 7 > 2. κέντρον”

“κέντρον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“κέντρον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“κέντρον”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
κέντρον 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
κέντρον in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“κέντρον”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G2759 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
κέντρον 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^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- barb idem, page 62.
- goad idem, page 365.
- incentive idem, page 427.
- incitement idem, page 428.
- pang idem, page 591.
- peg idem, page 602.
- point idem, page 623.
- prick idem, page 640.
- rowel idem, page 723.
- smart idem, page 786.
- spur idem, page 806.
- stimulant idem, page 817.
- stimulus idem, page 817.
- sting idem, page 817.
κέντρον, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “κεντέω”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 672-3: “DER > line 7 > 2. κέντρον”

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