Ancient Greek

Noun

κύβος • ‎(kúbos) m ‎(genitive κύβου); second declension

1. (geometry) square
2. (geometry) cube
3. 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.

     • 1919 translation by Bernadotte Perrin

       But 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.]

4. chance
5. (mathematics) cube, cubic number
6. (anatomy) vertebra; hollow above the hip of cattle

Inflection

Descendants

• Russian: куб m ‎(kub), ку́бик m ‎(kúbik)

References

• 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.

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κύβος ‎(kúbos).

Noun

κύβος • ‎(kývos) m ‎(plural κύβοι)

1. (geometry) cube

Declension

Derived terms

• κυβικός ‎(kyvikós, “cubic”)