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εὖνις

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Greek has two words spelled εὖνις: an adjective meaning “bereft” and a noun meaning “wife”.[1][2]

εὖνις1 bereft

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /êu̯.nis/[3]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈe.βnis/[3]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈe.vnis/[3]

Forms

εὖνῐς (eûnis) m or f (genitive εὔνῐδος or εὔνῐος); third declension[3]

Etymology

The adjective “bereft” is of unclear origin.[4] It has been compared with adjectives meaning “lacking, empty”: Sanskrit ऊन (ūná-, “deficient”), Avestan ūna- and Latin vānus (“empty”).[4][5] The NIL lists it, with a question mark, as Proto-Indo-European *h₁uh₂-n-i-, from *h₁u̯eh₂- (“to abandon”).[6] Beekes objects that *h₁euh₂-n- would have given Greek ⟨*ἐ(ϝ)αν-⟩.[4] Ancient scholars derived it from εὐνή (eunḗ, “bed”), as one left lying alone, or from εἷς (heîs, “one”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad Priam says Achilles has made him bereft of his sons, and in the Odyssey Odysseus wishes he could make the Cyclops bereft of life.[1][8]

Semantic evolution

It stayed a poetic word.[2] Aeschylus uses it of children bereft of their father, and once without a genitive, apparently of a parent bereaved of children.[1][2] Empedocles uses it of arms lacking shoulders and of souls free from sorrows.[1]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it with a genitive, “bereft of”.[1][8]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it in the Persians and the Libation Bearers.[8][9]
  • 5th century BC – Empedocles uses it of limbs lacking shoulders.[1][9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Bereft of, deprived of, lacking (with a genitive).[1][2]
  2. Bereaved, of a parent who has lost children.[2]
  3. Free from (sorrows).[1]

εὖνις2 wife

Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /êu̯.nis/[3]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈe.βnis/[3]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈe.vnis/[3]

Forms

εὖνῐς (eûnis) f (genitive εὔνῐδος); third declension[3]

Etymology

The noun “wife” is a derivative from Ancient Greek εὐνή (eunḗ, “bed”), meaning a bedfellow, like εὐνέτις (eunétis).[5][2][1] The origin of that noun is unexplained.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in tragedy: Sophocles' Women of Trachis uses it of a wife.[1][2]

Semantic evolution

It remained a word of tragedy and later poetry: Euripides uses it in the Orestes and in Iphigenia at Aulis, Callimachus after him.[1][2] The Etymologicum Magnum records a masculine use, “husband”.[1]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it of a wife.[1][9]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it in the Orestes.[1][8][9]
  • 4th–3rd century BC – Callimachus uses it.[2][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bedfellow, wife.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  6. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  8. ^ a b c d Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  9. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge