Derivational etymology implying a series of formal manipulations, explicit in Theognostus. The semantic link between "hair" and "to be strong" is hard to understand, but it may be a reformulation of an etymology in which assumed etymon was κρατός "of the head", Homeric genitive of κάρα, rather than κρατέω. In that case there is a semantic relationship between "head" and "hair", relying on a metonymy. Since the etymology deriving κράτος "strength" from κάρα, κρατός "head" is attested in the Homeric epimerisms (kappa 123: ἐκ τοῦ κάρα οὖν κάρατος καὶ ἐν συγκοπῇ κράτος), the two words were considered related and that may explain why in Theognostus' formulation the etymon is given as κρατέω, related to κράτος, instead of κρατός. Lentz takes Theognostus' text as a quotation from Herodian (Peri orthographias, Lentz III/2, p. 409), and the same etymon κρατέω is found in Choeroboscus and the Byzantine Etymologica (see Parallels), but that does not warrant that it was in Herodian.