The noun κρανιον (kranion) means skull, or more specifically the brain box, hence the English word cranium. It stems from the unused noun καρα (kara), meaning head, top or peak, which in turn derives from the widely attested Proto-Indo-European root "ker-", which mostly yields words that have to do with horns (see below).

In the New Testament, our word is used consistently as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Golgotha. In Latin this name became Calvary. It occurs 4 times; see full concordance.

The noun κερασ (keras) means horn and stems from the same Proto-Indo-European root "ker-" as the above. This root is also suspiciously similar to the Hebrew noun קרן (qeren), meaning horn, which comes from the verb קרן (qaran), which either means to have horns, or to radiate — this is the verb that describes how Moses' face radiated when he came from the mountain (Exodus 34:29), which is why medieval artists depicted Moses commonly as having horns.

It's not clear whether the Hebrews saw horns as rays, or rays as horns, or whether the PIE language basin got this word from the Semites or vice versa (which would probably mean that one of the two lost its own native word for horn), but PIE does not have the ray-clause, and instead equates the horn with the top of the head; hence the word κρανιον (kranion), cranium, which literally means place of the horns, even though humans have no (visible) horns — which in turn means little: we are made in God's image, and God has wings (Psalm 91:4), and hence, so do we (and see for a solution of this conundrum our article on the noun αγγελος, aggelos, angel).

But in the PIE basin (and particularly in the Latin branch), horns became proverbial not simply for strength and courage, but rather as point of intersection of the opposing wills of contesters (in rhetoric, the horn of an argument was its most salient point). Where the Hebrew language emphasizes the importance of cooperation and synchronicity of players (hence the link between horns and the light of reason), the PIE language basin emphasizes competition and combat, and horns became symbolic for, well, the locking of horns and the volatile mix of clashing intensions, wills and desires.

For obvious reasons, the ירך (yarek), or genitalia, of both men and women were considered the seat of the will, and so the horn also acquired a sexual connotation, and came to signify a cuckhold (that's the husband of a promiscuous wife). The husband would be described as growing horns (becoming horny, presiding over perpetually mixed bloodlines), whilst someone else's offspring would grow within his wife, for him to provide for.

The Hebrews made trumpets from horns, and used them to incite people into collective action. The Indo-Europeans associated horns with the overstepping of boundaries. The overlap lies in the extension of the range of one's own control into that of another, which is precisely what language is designed to do, and language is the vehicle of reason, the substance of which is light.

To the Indo-Europeans, divinity was a power-related affair, and sex with gods nearly always had to do with violence and rape. The founder of Rome, Romulus, was conceived when the god of war, Mars, raped Rhea Silvia. Adding insult to injury, Rhea Silvia was a Vestal Virgin, devoted to Vesta, the goddess of home, hearth and family (after 30 years of service, a Vestal Virgin was commonly married to a Roman nobleman, but obviously not if she had been raped). In Greece, Athena was considered a perpetual Virgin — and in antiquity, a people was feminine (see אמם, 'amam, mother or people) and the king or his extended government was masculine — who lent her kingless maturity to the πολις (polis), city (hence English words like polite and civilized), and ultimately the democracy and its ideal: ελευθερια (eleutheria), or freedom-by-law, with the law being understood as an "emergent property" of feminine society rather than imposed by some masculine ruler.

This hugely revolutionary idea, of the law as emergent property rather than kingly dictate, was translated into the familiar image of the Virgin to be with Child (see παρθενος, parthenos, virgin), which later authors applied to Mary, whose pregnancy with Jesus Christ explained both the similarities and the differences between Mars, the Greek god of war, and YHWH, the Hebrew "Man of War" (Exodus 15:3; the word for war used here is לחם, laham, which also means bread, hence the name Bethlehem, which means both House of War and House of Bread; also see our article on αρτος, artos, bread).

In modern times, the Biblical metaphor that depicts God as the groom and humanity as Bride is regarded through the pink lens of romantic prudence, but in antiquity this union had a very strong sexual implication that was discussed without shame or reservation. The 100 liters of myrrh oil (מור, mor) that Nicodemus brought to the grave of Christ (John 19:39) marked the consummation of marriage (and that's the "burial custom of the Jews" the text speaks of; Jews never embalmed their dead like the Egyptians did, as the majority of commentators appear to suggest). And the euphemistic "glory" of the Lord, that entered the "tent of meeting" like a pillar of smoke, well, that's a euphemism for God ejaculating his Spirit into mankind (see our article on the כבד, kabed, of the Lord).

All of this would suggest that the familiar image of the Cornucopia (the overflowing heavenly "horn" or the ejaculating heavenly "penis") factually tells of an overflowing mind — and it also suggests that human minds have genders just like our bodies do (while one's mental gender has nothing to do with one's physical gender): a feminine mind is a mind that desires to receive seed, whereas a masculine mind is a mind that desires to spread seed. That in turn suggest that the few Bible texts that appear to outlaw homosexuality (but see our article on αρσενοκοιτης, arsenokoites, male-bedder), much rather outlaw debate between male-minds (that's the kind of debate in which nobody listens, and where victory is more important than the matters discussed), and endless inflationary speculations between female minds (that's the kind of conversation that goes all over the place without support from actual facts).

It also suggests that the Horn of Salvation of the House of David (Luke 1:69) is the alphabet (see our article on the name YHWH), that the horns of Joseph (Deuteronomy 33:13-17) are the meanings of dreams (see our article on οναρ, onar, dream), and that the ram caught in the thicket on Mount Moriah, the future temple mount, reflects the beginning of the spread of literacy in the human world (and see our article on the name Isaac for a brief look at this difficult scene).

Note the obvious similarity between the verb קרן (qaran), to radiate, and the verb קרא (qara'), to call near (hence the name Quran). Another verb that means to radiate is הלל (halal), hence the familiar term Hallelujah, which may have helped form the quintessentially Greek name Hellas (see our article on that name for the details of this).

Our noun κερασ (keras), horn, is used 11 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, and from it derive:

From a specialized sub-cluster of the same PIE root "ker-" that yielded the nouns κερασ (keras), horn, and κρανιον (kranion), skull (see above), the verb κεραννυμι (keranummi) means to mix or blend, mostly of liquids (Revelation 14:10 and 18:6 only).

The unused verb φυρω (phuro) also means to mix but mostly speaks of mixing granular substances, although there is obvious overlap as from the latter follows the noun φυραμα (phurama), clay (or dough), whereas from the former comes κεραμος (keramos), also meaning clay (see below).

In our article on the adjective αζυμος (azumos), unleavened, we argue that the feast of Pascha — πασχα (pascha), technically from the Hebrew פסח (pesah), lameness, but obviously relatable to the Greek verb πασχω (pascho), to experience — was essentially a world fair in which people from all over the known world would come to see and be seen: to experience the many ways of being human, the many normalcies that are really arbitrary and the shared values that mark the essence of humanity. That means that Pascha was really the Great Mixing (Exodus 12:38).

From our verb κεραννυμι (keranummi), to mix, derive:

The fascinating term κρασπεδον (kraspedon) describes the fringe, hem or edge of a garment, and was also used metaphorically to describe the ragged edges of a country or an army, or those of a mountain. In the Septuagint, this noun translates the plural noun גדלים (gedilim), the tassels of twisted thread that were to be attached to the four corners of people's garments (Deuteronomy 22:12). These were obviously not minor ornaments as the word גדלים (gedilim) derives from the same verb גדל (gadel), to be strong or great, from which comes the noun מגדל (migdal), tower, and thus the name Magdalene.

Another word used for these tassels (also translated by our Greek noun) is ציצת (sisit), as used in Numbers 15:38-39, where it is explained that the tassel, plus a blue ribbon, was designed to remind of the commandments of YHWH, and take one's attentions away from the desires of one's heart. Related noun ציץ (sis) means flower or blossom, and our noun ציצת (sisit), meaning tassel, relates to flowers blooming, or rather dropping their leaves so as to turn into a fruit. The petals of flowers may be compared to rays emanating from a light source, which relates our word to the verb קרן (qaran), to radiate, as mentioned above.

Where our noun κρασπεδον (kraspedon) formally comes from is not wholly clear, but any Greek speaker would certainly have assumed that it had to do with the noun κρας (kras), a poetic form of καρα (kara), head, from which came κρανιον (kranion), skull, as mentioned above. The second part of our noun would surely have been recognized as πεδον (pedon), ground or base, from πους (pous), foot. Our word literally means head-foot or top-base: place where the head is based — which perhaps suggests that the Lord's commandments promote reason.

Our noun κρασπεδον (kraspedon) is used 5 times in the New Testament; see full concordance.