David Lim wrote:in my understanding of language, the meaning of "κυριος" as a Greek word does not have anything to do with "Yahweh". I never consider contextually implied referents to be part of the intrinsic meaning of a word. Maybe you do, but I don't see why I should, otherwise we might as well include every single entity that "κυριος" has ever been used to refer to, say in well-known writings, and not just in the LXX or NT.
Does "as a Greek word" mean something like κύριος = ὁ ἔχων τὸ κῦρος, or are you thinking of something like Plato's theory of forms?
I think that if a Koine Greek speaker - unfamiliar with the Jewish or Christian religion - heard or read the verse
Romans 10:13 (RP) wrote:Πᾶς γὰρ ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα κυρίου σωθήσεται .
"Whoever invokes the name of the lord will be kept from harm's way (in their daily life)."
they would have no problem in identifying this as having a religious / cult meaning, and may imagine that it referred to one of the Popular deities of the era - Serapion perhaps.
An observant Jew hearing the text would perhaps be able to recite the original Hebrew of the verse;
Joel 2:32 (MT) wrote:כֹּ֧ל אֲשֶׁר ־ יִקְרָ֛א בְּשֵׁ֥ם יְהוָ֖ה יִמָּלֵ֑ט
kōl ’ă·šer- yiq·rā bə·šêm יהוה yim·mā·lêṭ;
"All who calls on the Name of יהוה will be saved (delivered from the hand of the gentile)."
A Christian might hear this verse and understand from a verse a little before it;
Romans 10:9 (RP) wrote:ὅτι ἐὰν ὁμολογήσῃς ἐν τῷ στόματί σου κύριον Ἰησοῦν , καὶ πιστεύσῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου ὅτι ὁ θεὸς αὐτὸν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν , σωθήσῃ ·
"because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
based on that they might logically understand that the Κύριος of Romans 10:13 was referring to Jesus.
I think there would be a range of referents that people would think of when hearing it. Those familiar with the passage in Joel (in Hebrew) might conclude that Paul was claiming that Jesus was Lord (יהוה), others might think Jesus was a figure in the religion like they had been used to in their former beliefs, and stil others might think that Jesus was an important man deserving of respect and appelation (κύριος = "sir"). I think it would be hard to say what each individual thought of when they would hear the word κύριος.
A good dictionary will cover all such possible meanings, and we should be familiar enough with all the possible meanings and alert enough when reading to be able to make a good choice about which meaning could be applied in each given case, so that we would not have to rely on the "in my understanding" meaning, but would be more capable to try to understand what was the meaning that the persons reading or hearing the passage would make of it and what were the possible understanding that the writer had, and to see whether in all likelihood they were the same or differed.
Just understanding the Greek meaning seems to predispose you to understand like the first example above. I'm not sure if that is what you wanted to imply by your "intrinsic meaning of the word" claim?