# κύβος
## Ancient Greek
### Etymology

Difficult to trace. The word passed to and from a number of languages (compare Latin cubus (“mass, quantity; cube”)).
Often thought to be derived from the root Proto-Indo-European *kewbh₂- (“to lie down (actively)”), reconstructed in LIV based on Latin cubō (“to lie down (passively)”) and some other verb forms. Compare Proto-Germanic *hupiz (“hip”) and Latin cubitus (“elbow”), and (formally unrelated) Ancient Greek ἀστράγαλος (astrágalos, “astragalus bone, knucklebone; dice (made from a knucklebone)”) for the semantic connection between “vertebra, bone (of an animal)” and “die, dice”. Animal bones were historically used as playing dice.
According to Beekes, words for dice are often loans and the Lydians claimed to have invented the game of κύβος (kúbos), suggesting a possible loan from Lydian. He additionally rejects the connections given above to the Italic and Germanic terms.
Appears to have no relation to Arabic كَعْبَة (kaʕba).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ký.bos/ → /ˈcy.βos/ → /ˈci.vos/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /ký.bos/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /ˈky.bos/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /ˈcy.βos/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /ˈcy.vos/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /ˈci.vos/

### Noun

κύβος • (kúbos) m (genitive κύβου); second declension
* (geometry) square
* (geometry) cube
* die, dice
** 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Julius Caesar 32:τέλος δὲ μετὰ θυμοῦ τινος ὥσπερ ἀφεὶς ἑαυτὸν ἐκ τοῦ λογισμοῦ πρὸς τὸ μέλλον, καὶ τοῦτο δὴ τὸ κοινὸν τοῖς εἰς τύχας ἐμβαίνουσιν ἀπόρους καὶ τόλμας προοίμιον ὑπειπὼν, “Ἀνερρίφθω κύβος,” ὥρμησε πρὸς τὴν διάβασιν καὶ δρόμῳ τὸ λοιπὸν ἤδη χρώμενος εἰσέπεσε πρὸ ἡμέρας εἰς τὸ Ἀρίμινον καὶ κατέσχε.télos dè metà thumoû tinos hṓsper apheìs heautòn ek toû logismoû pròs tò méllon, kaì toûto dḕ tò koinòn toîs eis túkhas embaínousin apórous kaì tólmas prooímion hupeipṑn, “Anerrhíphthō kúbos,” hṓrmēse pròs tḕn diábasin kaì drómōi tò loipòn ḗdē khrṓmenos eisépese prò hēméras eis tò Aríminon kaì katéskhe.1919 translation by Bernadotte PerrinBut finally, with a sort of passion, as if abandoning calculation and casting himself upon the future, and uttering the phrase with which men usually prelude their plunge into desperate and daring fortunes, “Let the die be cast,” he hastened to cross the river; and going at full speed now for the rest of the time, before daybreak he dashed into Ariminum and took possession of it. [– See the die is cast.]
* chance
* (mathematics) cube, cubic number
* (anatomy) vertebra; hollow above the hip of cattle

#### Derived terms

* κυβικός (kubikós)

#### Descendants

* Greek: κύβος (kývos)
* → Latin: cubus
** → Old French: cube
*** → English: cube
*** French: cube
* → Russian: куб (kub)
* → Classical Syriac: ܩܘܒܘܣ (qwbws /⁠qūbōs⁠/, “cube”)
** → Arabic: قوبوس (/⁠qūbōs⁠/, “cube”)

### References

* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κύβος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 795

### Further reading

* “κύβος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “κύβος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* κύβος 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, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited. cube idem, page 188.dice idem, page 222.
* “κύβος”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

## Greek
### Etymology

From Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos).

### Noun

κύβος • (kývos) m (plural κύβοι)
* (geometry) cube

#### Derived terms

* κυβικός (kyvikós, “cubic”)