The verb κλαω (klao) means to break, but in the sense of arresting some natural progression and directing its energy into a bursting delta of fragments, streams, branches, etcetera. Metaphorically our verb may mean to weaken, such as emotions or one's voice — precisely as our evenly curious English synonyms: a breaking voice, a breaking heart. Our verb is also identical to an Attic variant of the verb κλαιω (klaio), meaning to wail or lament (see below).

In the New Testament our verb is used solely to describe the breaking of bread, which is quite unlike the usage of this verb in the classics but obviously matches the mysteries of the New Testament rather perfectly. Jesus, after all, is not merely some wise guru or distant deity but rather incarnate in his people. The bread that was his earthly body was broken and is now the many bits of bread that are the bodies of his people.

This verb occurs 15 times, see full concordance, and from it come:

The noun κληρος (kleros) also probably comes from our verb κλαω (klao), meaning to break or to divide into constituents. Our noun means lot or share and also describes the items that were used in the art of cleromancy, that is divination by means of casting lots (and the clero- part of this word indeed comes from our noun kleros).

Our noun κληρος (kleros) denotes a representative part of something that can't actually be divided: a part of something that requires all its part to be functional and integrated in order to be what it is: whether a seamless garment (Matthew 27:35) or the ministry of the indivisible One God (1 Peter 5:3). This noun was also used to indicate ownership; a "lot" could be quite alike a modern receipt or promissory note, or demonstrate one's right to trade commodities that weren't portable — say, cargo capacity of a ship; a lot that demonstrates ownership of that would allow trade without having to bring the whole ship to a market place.

Cleromancy was very common in Judaism (Leviticus 16:8, Numbers 26:55, Judges 20:9, 1 Chronicles 24:5, Nehemiah 10:34), and its purpose was not to obtain the deterministic will of a tyrannic deity, but rather to mix available resources and maintain the freedom and unpredictability that is the very foundation of both the entire universe (a.k.a. quantum indeterminacy) and ultimately the perfect Republic of the Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:24).

Our word is the Greek equivalent of the familiar Hebrew term פור (pur), lot (hence the feast of Purim), from the verb פרר (parar), to split or divide. This verb may be related to פרש (paras), which in turn may have given rise to the name Pharisee: the lot-catchers. The more common Hebrew verb for casting lots is גרל (goral). A Greek synonym is λαγχανω (lagchano).

Our noun κληρος (kleros) occurs 12 times, see full concordance, and from it derive:

The verb κλαιω (klaio) means to wail. Unlike the more modest and private activity of weeping (δακρυω, dakruo), this verb describes the loudly communicated expression of grief or pain. Unabashed wailing was more common in the ancient world because, unlike in our modern world, wailing was not considered a sign of weakness or poor manners. Rather the absence of wailing when wailing was due was deemed inappropriate, which spawned a lucrative cottage industry of professional wailers (Mark 5:38, James 5:1). And since in the ancient world life was much more wrought with peril, injustice, violence and disease, wailing could be heard pretty much continuously.

In the Attic dialect, our verb κλαιω (klaio), to wail, was spelled the same as the verb κλαω (klao), to break, as discussed above. A comparable duality exists with the verbs θρηνεω (threneo), to loudly bewail, and the verb θραυω (thrauo), to break into pieces.

Our verb κλαιω (klaio) is used 40 times, see full concordance, and from it derives: