Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’
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Lucien van Beek
Abstract
An old idea, commonly accepted today,1 is that Homeric κρείων ‘lord, ruler’, Classical Greek κρέων derives from the same verbal root as Vedic śri- ‘beauty, splendor’, śréyas- ‘more beautiful’, Avestan sraiiah- ‘id.’, sraiian- ‘beauty’ and other related forms. In this article, I will challenge this idea, and argue instead that κρείων derives from the PIE nominal stem *ḱrh₂-s- ‘head’. More precisely, κρείων is the outcome of a masculine n-stem derivative PGr. *krāh-on- ‘chief’, derivationally related to (but distinct from) the oblique PGr. *krāhn̥t- ‘head’, the outcome of the PIE neuter *ḱrh₂-s-n-. This PGr. *krāhon- was reshaped as *krāhontafter other nt-stems with a similar meaning, notably γέροντ- ‘old man’.
© 2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Vorwort der Herausgeber
- Contents
- A note on the functional distribution of ille in Late Latin
- The origin of the Baltic inchoative in -sta-
- Once more on Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs
- The long vowel in WGmc. *hlūdV
- Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’
- Decoding Middle Welsh clauses or “Avoid Ambiguity”
- Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?
- Intensifiers and reflexives in SAE, Insular Celtic and English
- Beiträge zur Leidener Arbeitstagung 2013
- Ares the Ripper
- Tone variation in the Baltic ia-presents
- “Narten formations” versus “Narten roots”
- Surprise at length of Tocharian nouns
- From phonetics to grammar
- Notes on three “acrostatic” neuter s-stems
- Monosyllabic circumflexion or shortening?
- The augment of vowel-initial roots and vṛddhi–derivation in the Indo–Iranian languages
- The lengthened grade in Germanic hypocoristica
- The fourth makes it whole?
- Wortindex
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Vorwort der Herausgeber
- Contents
- A note on the functional distribution of ille in Late Latin
- The origin of the Baltic inchoative in -sta-
- Once more on Hittite ā/e-ablauting ḫi-verbs
- The long vowel in WGmc. *hlūdV
- Homeric κρείων ‘lord’ and the Indo-European word for ‘head’
- Decoding Middle Welsh clauses or “Avoid Ambiguity”
- Did murmur spread in Pre-Proto-Indo-European?
- Intensifiers and reflexives in SAE, Insular Celtic and English
- Beiträge zur Leidener Arbeitstagung 2013
- Ares the Ripper
- Tone variation in the Baltic ia-presents
- “Narten formations” versus “Narten roots”
- Surprise at length of Tocharian nouns
- From phonetics to grammar
- Notes on three “acrostatic” neuter s-stems
- Monosyllabic circumflexion or shortening?
- The augment of vowel-initial roots and vṛddhi–derivation in the Indo–Iranian languages
- The lengthened grade in Germanic hypocoristica
- The fourth makes it whole?
- Wortindex
