BIBLE DICTIONARY + WORD STUDY
How to read this: there is rarely one magic “true meaning” hidden behind an English word. A lexicon records a word’s semantic range. The intended meaning is narrowed by grammar, sentence, author, historical usage and context.
GREEK · G7793
kantharos — beetle
1. Lat. cantharus, a beetle worshipped in Egypt, (Aeschulus Tragicus), etc. 2. a Naxian boat , (Aristophanes Comicus) 3. a mark or knot like a beetle , on the tongue of the Egyptian god Apis, (Herdotus Historicus) (ML)
0 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →GREEK · G8975
pteron — a feather
1. mostly in plural feathers , (Odyssey by Homer), etc.; in singular a feather , (Aristophanes Comicus) 2. = πτέρυξ, a bird's wing , in plural wings , (Homer); Παλλάδος ὑπὸ πτεροῖς ὄντας, metaphorically from chickens under the hen's wings, (Aeschulus Tragicus): —; τῷ πτερὰ γίγνετο he got as it were wings , i. e. spirit, courage, (Iliad by Homer) 3. the wings of a bat (see. πτίλον II), (Herdotus Historicus) 4. any winged creature , as the Sphinx, (Euripides); a beetle, (Aristophanes Comicus) 5. like οἰωνός, Lat. avis, an augury, omen, (Pindar) 6. anything like wings : as 7. a ship's wings , i. e. oars (compare πτερόω); ἐρετμά, τά τε πτερὰ νηυσὶ πέλονται (Odyssey by Homer); νηὸς πτερά (Hesiod):—; hence birds are said πτεροῖς ἐρέσσειν, (Euripides) 8. ἀέθλων πτερά, i. e. the wings of victory, which lift the Poet to heaven, (Pindar) 9. a feathered arrow , (Euripides) 10. τοῦ πώγωνος τὰ πτερά the points of the beard, (Lucian) 11. in Architecture, of the rows of columns along the sides of Greek temples, see. ἄπτερος. (ML)
0 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →GREEK · G9376
sphura — an adz
1. a hammer , (Odyssey by Homer) 2. a beetle, mallet , for breaking clods of earth, (Hesiod) (ML)
0 tagged verse occurrences · see every occurrence →(Heb. hargol, meaning “leaper”). Mention of it is made only in Lev. 11:22, where it is obvious the word cannot mean properly the beetle. It denotes some winged creeper with at least four feet, “which has legs above its feet, to leap withal.” The description plainly points to the locust (q.v.). This has been an article of food from the earliest times in the East to the present day. The word is rendered “cricket” in the Revised Version.
Source: Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897). Historical dictionary wording reflects the scholarship and language of its era.
