The adjective ποικιλος (poikilos) means variegated or many-colored, and stems from the same Proto-Indo-European root "peyk-", to cut or hew, or stitch or embroider, and hence to mark, paint or color, as the Latin pingo and pictus, and thus the English words picture, pigment, paint, and so on.

Our adjective originally denoted spotted or many-colored woven artifacts, but — as the PIE root "tek-" means to weave and gave us words like textile, text and technology — then went on to describe anything intricate, from cunningly crafted metal work to elaborate songs to complicated oracles.

Inevitably, it also came to denote complicated science or abstruse knowledge, and could thus describe artful or multi-talented people (such as Prometheus, who gave fire to mankind, and Odysseus, the proverbial student of the many ways of man; Od.1.3).

In Hebrew canon, the proverbial man of many colors (or dressed in many colors) is of course Joseph, the beloved son of Jacob (Genesis 37:3). His varicolored tunic in turn is a play on the rainbow, the sign of the Noahic covenant in the clouds (νεφελη, nephele), and rainbows come about when water (John the Baptist) meets light (Jesus of Nazareth).

Our adjective is used 10 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, and from it derives:

The adjective πικρος (pikros) means sharp, poignant or bitter, and stems from the same PIE root "peyk-" as the above. Homer used this word to escribe an arrow (a "bitter" shaft, in Peter Green's excellent translation of Iliad.4.118), but mostly our word describes a pungent taste or smell, sharp or keen sensations or a piercing sound. Figuratively our word may describe any sort of "bitter" experience (painful, unsettling, threatening) or angry, hateful, relentless or spiteful person.

In Greek, the idea of anything sharp or bitter is nearly exclusively negative. The Hebrews, however, figured that bitterness could be an excellent teacher and when properly exploited could bear enormous fruits (see our article on the name Tigris, meaning pointy or sharp, figurative of legal authority).

The Hebrew word for bitter is מר (mar), from the verb מרר (marar), which also yields the names Miriam (of the sister of Moses and Aaron), Mara (of Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth, the great-grandmother of David) and Mary (of the mother of Jesus). From that same word for bitter also comes the word myrrh, מר (mor), the main constituent of the fragrant oil with which people broadcasted to the world that a marriage was first consummated (hence Nicodemus' spectacular contribution to Jesus' burial: John 19:39).

Where the Greeks considered bitterness a thing to be avoided, the Hebrews connected bitterness to the transition from one's carefree and playful childhood, via the training period of one's adolescence, to a dutiful and perhaps obligatory married life, which in turn also yielded the subsequent joy of parenthood and the perpetuation of one's legacy (Psalm 16:10). In Genesis 30:1, Rachel says to Jacob: "Give me children, or else I die!". Soon after, Joseph is born and Jacob gives him his varicolored tunic. But, as Joseph soon finds out and David's son Solomon notes, nobody likes a wise-guy: "Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain" (Ecclesiastes 1:18).

Our adjective πικρος (pikros), bitter, occurs in the New Testament in James 3:11 and 3:14 only. From it derive: