κωνωπεῖον

Forms

κωνωπεῖον (kōnōpeîon) n (genitive κωνωπείου); second declension^[1] Also κωνώπιον, the form under which LSJ and Lust list the Septuagint passages, κωνόπιον in a papyrus, and κωνωπεών.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek κώνωψ (kṓnōps), “mosquito, gnat”, with the suffix -εῖον (-eîon) that forms names of places and objects: a thing “for mosquitoes”.^[1][4][5] Beekes, following Frisk, thinks that the form κωνώπιον (kōnṓpion) was reshaped by folk etymology from an earlier *κανώπιον (*kanṓpion) named after the Egyptian town of Canopus, a view that Chantraine finds hard to explain.^[6][7][8]

The base word has no accepted etymology.^[6][8] Frisk and Chantraine reject the old analysis as κῶνος (kônos) “cone” plus ὤψ (ṓps) “eye, face”.^[7][8] Spiegelberg derived it from Egyptian ḫmś (“gnat”), reshaped after the word for “cone”.^[6][7][8] Beekes considers it Pre-Greek, because there is no good etymology and the suffix -ωπ- is frequent in Pre-Greek words.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first known use is in the Septuagint book of Judith, where it is a bed hung with mosquito curtains, a canopied couch.^[3][5][9] Lust marks it as a word first found in the Septuagint.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The thing and the word were associated with Egypt: Pape describes it as a bed in common Egyptian use, with curtains of fine gauze to keep the mosquitoes off.^[10] Galen uses the diminutive form κωνώπιον for a small gnat, and Soranus has it for the curtained bed.^[2] A papyrus of the 5th or 6th century AD spells it κωνόπιον, and Coptic borrowed it in the Sahidic dialect.^[2][11]

The word passed into Latin conopeum (earlier conopium, in Horace).^[12][2][13] Medieval Latin canopeum gave Old French conope, whence English canopy in the late 14th century.^[14] French canapé comes from the same Latin word.^[14][1] Πάπυρος glosses the ancient word with the modern κουνουπιέρα (kounoupiéra), “mosquito net”.^[15]

Timeline

• 2nd century BC – The book of Judith uses it four times for a bed with mosquito curtains.^[3][9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Soranus uses it for a curtained bed.^[2][16]
• 2nd century AD – Galen uses κωνώπιον for a small gnat.^[2][16]
• 5th–6th century AD – A papyrus spells it κωνόπιον.^[2]
• Late 14th century – English takes canopy from Old French, through Medieval Latin canopeum.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A couch or bed hung with mosquito curtains, a canopied bed.^[2][3][13]
2. A mosquito net.^[5][17][18]

Related words

• κώνωψ (kṓnōps)
• Latin conopeum
• English canopy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
4. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
6. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
8. ^ a b c d Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
10. ^ Pape, Wilhelm (1914), Griechisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 3rd ed., rev. Max Sengebusch, Braunschweig: Vieweg
11. ^ Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
12. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
13. ^ a b Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
16. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
17. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli
18. ^ Woitrain, Jean-Pierre (2023), Lexique grec, Prima Elementa