κλείς

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• κλεῖς (kleîs) — Attic
• κλῄς (klēís) — Old Attic
• κληῑ̈́ς (klēī̈́s) — Epic, Ionic
• κλᾶῑ̈ς (klâī̈s), κλαῖς (klaîs), κλᾱ́ῑ̈ς (klā́ī̈s) — Aeolic
• κλᾱῑ̈́ς (klāī̈́s), κλᾴξ (klāíx) — Doric

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *klāwī́ds, from Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“nail, pin, hook - instruments, of old use for locking doors”). Cognate with Latin clāvus (“nail, pin”), Old Church Slavonic ключь (ključĭ, “key”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /klěːs/ → /ˈklis/ → /ˈklis/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /klěːs/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈklis/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈklis/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈklis/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈklis/

Noun

κλείς • (kleís) f (genitive κλειδός); third declension

1. bar, bolt
   1. a catch or hook passed through the door from the outside to catch the strap attached to the bar
   2. key
   3. (figurative) a means to something; key
2. hook or tongue of a clasp
   1. stopcock
3. (anatomy) collarbone (probably so called from its hook shape)
4. (in the plural) rowing bench of a ship
5. narrow strait, promontory or pass
6. (in the plural) sacred chaplets
7. (poetry) clausula, cadence

Inflection

Third declension of ἡ κλείς; τῆς κλειδός (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κλείς hē kleís	τὼ κλεῖδε tṑ kleîde	αἱ κλεῖδες / κλεῖς hai kleîdes / kleîs
Genitive	τῆς κλειδός tês kleidós	τοῖν κλειδοῖν toîn kleidoîn	τῶν κλειδῶν tôn kleidôn
Dative	τῇ κλειδῐ́ tēî kleidĭ́	τοῖν κλειδοῖν toîn kleidoîn	ταῖς κλεισῐ́ / κλεισῐ́ν taîs kleisĭ́(n)
Accusative	τὴν κλεῖδᾰ / κλεῖν tḕn kleîdă / kleîn	τὼ κλεῖδε tṑ kleîde	τᾱ̀ς κλεῖδᾰς / κλεῖς tā̀s kleîdăs / kleîs
Vocative	κλείς kleís	κλεῖδε kleîde	κλεῖδες / κλεῖς kleîdes / kleîs
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Nominative singular -ς (-s) arose by reduction of the original cluster *-δς (*-ds).

Derived terms

• ῐ̔πποκλείδης (hĭppokleídēs)
• κλειδᾰγωγῐ́ᾱ (kleidăgōgĭ́ā)
• κλειδᾶς (kleidâs)
• κλειδῐ́ον (kleidĭ́on)
• κλειδοποιός (kleidopoiós)
• κλείδουχος (kleídoukhos)
• κλειδοφορέω (kleidophoréō)
• κλειδοφῠ́λᾰξ (kleidophŭ́lăx)
• κλειδόω (kleidóō)
• κλείω (kleíō)
• πολῠκλείδωτος (polŭkleídōtos)
• πολῠκλήῑ̈ς (polŭklḗī̈s)

Descendants

Descendants

• → Aghwan: 𐕄𐔼𐔾𐕜 (ḳilṭ)
• → Aramaic: קלידא
  • Classical Syriac: ܩܠܝܕܐ (qəlīḏāʾ)
  • Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אַקְלִידָא (ʾaqlīḏāʾ)
  • → Arabic: إِقْلِيد (ʔiqlīd)
  • → Hebrew: קְלִיד (qəlîḏ)
• → English: cleido-
• ⇒ New Latin: sternocleidomastoīdēs, sternocleidomastoīdeus
  • → English: sternocleidomastoid, sternocleidomastoideus
• → Old Georgian: კლიტჱ (ḳliṭē)
  • Georgian: კლიტე (ḳliṭe), კილტე (ḳilṭe) (Adjara, Guria, Fereydan)
    • → Bats: კლიტ (ḳliṭ)
• → Persian: کلید (kelid), کیلیت (kilit) (dialectal, Tehrani), کلیل (kelil) (dialectal, Dezfuli), کلی (kilī) (dialectal, Kabuli)
  • → Central Kurdish: کلیل (kilîl)
  • → Chagatai: کلید (klyd), 𐽷𐽶𐾁𐽶𐾀 (kylyt /⁠kilīd⁠/) — Old Uyghur script
    • Uyghur: كىلىت (kilit)
    • Uzbek: kalit
  • → Mazanderani: کلی (kli)
  • → Northern Kurdish: kilîd
  • → Karakhanid: كِرِتْ
  • → Kazakh: кілт (kılt)
  • → Old Anatolian Turkish: كلید
    • Azerbaijani: kilid
    • Ottoman Turkish: كلید (kilid), كلیت (kilit)
      • Turkish: kilit
  • → Turkmen: kilt
  • → Yaghnobi: калит (kalit)

Further reading

• “κλείς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “κλείς”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• κλείς 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
• G2807 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • collar-bone idem, page 143.
• κλείς, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011