καθέδρα

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From κατά (katá, “down”) +‎ ἕδρα (hédra, “seat”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ka.tʰé.draː/ → /kaˈθe.ðra/ → /kaˈθe.ðra/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ka.tʰé.draː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /kaˈtʰe.dra/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /kaˈθe.ðra/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /kaˈθe.ðra/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /kaˈθe.ðra/

Noun

κᾰθέδρᾱ • (kathédrā) f (genitive κᾰθέδρᾱς); first declension

1. seat
   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cynegeticus 4.4
   1. chair
      • 320 CE – 403 CE, Oribasius, Collected Works 6.25.1
      • 170 CE – 240 CE, Herodian, History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus 2.3.7
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 2.714e
   2. (nautical) rower's seat
      • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 1.21.2
   3. sitting part, posterior, bottom
      • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, On Internal Affections 47
      • ante 177 CE, Pollux, Onomasticon 2.184
   4. (architecture) base of a column
      • 64 BCE – 24 CE, Strabo, Geography 17.1.46
2. sitting posture
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Categories p6b.11
   • 350 BCE, Aristotle, Parts of Animals 4.689b.21
   • 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, On Fatigue 5
   • 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, On Fatigue 7
   • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 2.45c
   1. seated idleness, inaction
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.18
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Camillus 28
   2. session
3. teacher's chair, professorial chair
   • 70 CE – 110 CE, The Gospel of Matthew 23:2
4. imperial throne
   1. (figurative) imperial representative

Inflection

First declension of ἡ κᾰθέδρᾱ; τῆς κᾰθέδρᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κᾰθέδρᾱ hē kathédrā	τὼ κᾰθέδρᾱ tṑ kathédrā	αἱ κᾰθέδραι hai kathédrai
Genitive	τῆς κᾰθέδρᾱς tês kathédrās	τοῖν κᾰθέδραιν toîn kathédrain	τῶν κᾰθεδρῶν tôn kathedrôn
Dative	τῇ κᾰθέδρᾳ têi kathédrāi	τοῖν κᾰθέδραιν toîn kathédrain	ταῖς κᾰθέδραις taîs kathédrais
Accusative	τὴν κᾰθέδρᾱν tḕn kathédrān	τὼ κᾰθέδρᾱ tṑ kathédrā	τᾱ̀ς κᾰθέδρᾱς tā̀s kathédrās
Vocative	κᾰθέδρᾱ kathédrā	κᾰθέδρᾱ kathédrā	κᾰθέδραι kathédrai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Antonyms

• (chair): κλίνη (klínē)

Derived terms

• κᾰθεδρᾰ́ριον (kathedrárion)
• κᾰθέδρῐος (kathédrios)
• κᾰθεδρωτός (kathedrōtós)

Descendants

• → Latin: cathedra (see there for further descendants)
• → Russian: ка́федра (káfedra)
• → Ukrainian: ка́федра (káfedra)

Further reading

• “καθέδρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “καθέδρα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• καθέδρα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• G2515 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• καθέδρα 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.
  • inaction idem, page 427.