κίτρον

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin citrum (“citron”) < citrus, itself probably via Etruscan from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros, “cedar”).^[1]

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /kí.tron/ → /ˈci.tron/ → /ˈci.tron/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /kí.tron/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈki.tron/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈci.tron/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈci.tron/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈci.tron/

Noun

κῐ́τρον • (kítron) n (genitive κῐ́τρου); second declension

1. (Koine) fruit of the citron tree

Inflection

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ κῐ́τρον tò kítron	τὼ κῐ́τρω tṑ kítrō	τᾰ̀ κῐ́τρᾰ tà kítra
Genitive	τοῦ κῐ́τρου toû kítrou	τοῖν κῐ́τροιν toîn kítroin	τῶν κῐ́τρων tôn kítrōn
Dative	τῷ κῐ́τρῳ tôi kítrōi	τοῖν κῐ́τροιν toîn kítroin	τοῖς κῐ́τροις toîs kítrois
Accusative	τὸ κῐ́τρον tò kítron	τὼ κῐ́τρω tṑ kítrō	τᾰ̀ κῐ́τρᾰ tà kítra
Vocative	κῐ́τρον kítron	κῐ́τρω kítrō	κῐ́τρᾰ kítra
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Second declension of τὸ κῐ́τρον; τοῦ κῐ́τρου (Attic)

Derived terms

• κιτρᾶτον (kitrâton)
• κιτρέα (kitréa)
• κίτρινος (kítrinos)
• κίτριον (kítrion)
• κιτρόμηλον (kitrómēlon)
• κιτρόφυλλον (kitróphullon)
• κιτρόφυτον (kitróphuton)
• κιτρόχρους (kitrókhrous)

 

Descendants

• Greek: κίτρο (kítro)
• → Old Armenian: կիտրոն (kitron)
• → Old East Slavic: китръ (kitrŭ), кидръ (kidrŭ), кидъръ (kidŭrŭ)
• → Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: קטרונא (qiṭrōnā)
• → Classical Syriac: ܩܛܪܝܢ (qiṭrīn)

References

1. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κίτριον (> VAR Also κίτρον)”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 705

Further reading

• “κίτρον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• κίτρον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Véronique Zech-Matterne, Girolamo Fiorentino, editors (2017), AGRUMED: Archaeology and History of Citrus Fruit in the Mediterranean Acclimatization, Diversifications, Uses‎, Naples: Publications du Centre Jean Bérard, →DOI, →ISBN