κεφαλή

From Proto-Hellenic *kʰepʰəlā́, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ-l̥-éh₂. Compare κεβλή (keblḗ). False cognate of Indonesian kepala.

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

κεφᾰλή • (kephalḗ) f (genitive κεφᾰλῆς); first declension

1. head
2. a person's life (often in the sense of being in danger, similar to the English idiom "head is on the line").
3. the topmost part
4. the most important part
5. (Byzantine) a provincial governor

• → Coptic: ⲕⲉⲫⲁⲗⲏ (kephalē)
• → English: cephalo-
• Greek: κεφαλή (kefalí)

• “κεφαλή”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “κεφαλή”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “κεφαλή”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• κεφαλή in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• κεφαλή in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• G2776 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• κεφαλή 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.
  • head idem, page 389.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κεφαλή (kephalḗ). Doublet of κεφάλι (kefáli), inherited from a diminutive form.

• IPA^(key): /ce.faˈli/
• Hyphenation: κε‧φα‧λή

κεφαλή • (kefalí) f (plural κεφαλές)

1. (formal) Synonym of κεφάλι (kefáli)

• κεφαλή - Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής [Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek], 1998, by the "Triantafyllidis" Foundation.