κολοκασία

Ancient Greek

Colocasia esculenta

Nymphaea lotus

Colocasia esculenta

Nelumbo nucifera

Alternative forms

• κολοκᾱ́σῐον (kolokā́sion)

Etymology

Of uncertain Asiatic origin shared with Mishnaic Hebrew קולקס, קרקס (“taro”) and Arabic قُلْقَاس (qulqās, “taro”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ko.lo.kaː.sí.aː/ → /ko.lo.kaˈsi.a/ → /ko.lo.kaˈsi.a/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ko.lo.kaː.sí.aː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ko.lo.kaˈsi.a/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ko.lo.kaˈsi.a/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ko.lo.kaˈsi.a/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ko.lo.kaˈsi.a/

Noun

κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱ • (kolokāsíā) f (genitive κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱς); first declension

1. rhizome of the Egyptian water-lily (Nymphaea lotus) (Koine)
2. rhizome of the Indian sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) (Koine)
3. taro, eddo (Colocasia esculenta plant and produce) [from 4^th century CE]

Declension

First declension of ἡ κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱ; τῆς κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱ hē kolokāsíā	τὼ κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱ tṑ kolokāsíā	αἱ κολοκᾱσῐ́αι hai kolokāsíai
Genitive	τῆς κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱς tês kolokāsíās	τοῖν κολοκᾱσῐ́αιν toîn kolokāsíain	τῶν κολοκᾱσῐῶν tôn kolokāsiôn
Dative	τῇ κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾳ têi kolokāsíāi	τοῖν κολοκᾱσῐ́αιν toîn kolokāsíain	ταῖς κολοκᾱσῐ́αις taîs kolokāsíais
Accusative	τὴν κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱν tḕn kolokāsíān	τὼ κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱ tṑ kolokāsíā	τᾱ̀ς κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱς tā̀s kolokāsíās
Vocative	κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱ kolokāsíā	κολοκᾱσῐ́ᾱ kolokāsíā	κολοκᾱσῐ́αι kolokāsíai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

• Greek: κολοκάσι (kolokási), κολοκάτσι (kolokátsi); κολοκάσιν (kolokásin), κολοκάτσιν (kolokátsin)
  • Turkish: gölevez, kolokas, kolokaz, kolakas, kologas, gologas, gologaz, kolakoz, gölegeş, göleğez, göleğiz, golağaz, oğlaz, ölağaz, öleğez, kokguç
• → Latin: colocāsia
  • → Translingual: Colocasia

Further reading

• “κολοκασία”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• κολοκασία in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Grimaldi, Ilaria Maria (2018 June 5) “Literary evidence for taro in the ancient Mediterranean: A chronology of names and uses in a multilingual world”, in PLoS One‎^[1], volume 13, number 6, →DOI