λύπη

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /ly̌ː.pɛː/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈly.pi/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈly.pi/^[1]

Forms

λῡ́πη (lū́pē) f (genitive λῡ́πης); first declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[2][1] Its uses of sickness and of poor land suggest an older concrete sense.^[3] The old comparison with Sanskrit लुम्पति (lumpáti, “to break”) is doubtful, because the Sanskrit verb is probably a dialect form of रुप्यति (rúpyati), which belongs with Latin rumpō.^[2][3][1] Beekes and Chantraine consider instead Proto-Indo-European *lewp- (“to peel off”), the root of Lithuanian lùpti (“to peel, flay”) and Russian лупить (lupítʹ, “to peel”), but the sense makes this uncertain.^[2][3][1]

Ancient writers derived it from λύω (lúō, “to loosen”): Plato in the Cratylus explains grief as the dissolving of the body, and Soranus as tears “loosening” the eyes.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aeschylus uses it of grief, and Herodotus of a sad plight or condition.^[5][3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Attic it is the common word for mental pain, distress and grief, used by the tragedians, Thucydides and the orators.^[7][5] Plato and Aristotle set it against ἡδονή (hēdonḗ, “pleasure”) and also use it of bodily pain.^[5][7][3] The adjective λυπρός (luprós) keeps the older concrete sense “poor, barren”, of land, from the Odyssey on.^[3]

In the New Testament it is grief or sorrow, opposed to χαρά (khará, “joy”).^[8][9] The word was used through the Middle Ages and survives as Modern Greek λύπη (lípi), “sorrow, sadness”.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of grief.^[5][12]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of a sad plight, Thucydides of the pain of love.^[5][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of bodily pain, as the opposite of pleasure.^[5][12]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament opposes it to joy.^[8]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek λύπη (lípi) means sorrow, sadness.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Pain of body, as the opposite of pleasure.^[5][7]
2. A sad plight or condition.^[5]
3. Grief, distress, annoyance; in the plural, sorrows.^[5][7]
4. (New Testament) Sorrow, as the opposite of joy.^[8]

Word family

• ἄλυπος (álūpos)
• λυπέω (lūpéō)
• λυπηρός (lupērós)
• λυπρός (luprós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f 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
4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
9. ^ Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge