A small boat. From a metaphor of the keles horse, on which a single man sits.
*kelh/tion: mikro\n ploia/rion. a)po\ metafora=s tou= ke/lhtos i(/ppou, w(=| ei(=s a)nh\r e)pika/qhtai.
From a scholion on
Thucydides 1.53.1, where the headword (a diminutive) occurs.
The primary meaning of
ke/lhs (LSJ s.v. I) is "courser, riding horse", usually in apposition with
i(/ppos as in the definition (e.g.
Homer,
Odyssey 5.371). The term was metaphorically extended to a type of yacht (LSJ s.v. II), with a single bank of oars; it occurs in
Herodotus 8.94,
Thucydides 4.9, 8.38,
Xenophon Hellenica 1.6.36, and elsewhere.
On the two senses of
ke/lhs, see
kappa 1300 and
kappa 1301.
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