νήπιος

Pronunciation

• 5th-century BC Attic: /nɛ̌ː.pi.os/^[1]
• 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈni.pi.os/^[1]
• 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈni.pi.os/^[1]

Forms

νήπῐος (nḗpios) m (feminine νηπῐ́ᾱ, neuter νήπῐον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unclear: Frisk calls it unexplained, and Chantraine finds none of the proposals satisfactory.^[2][3] It is probably formed with the negative prefix νη- (nē-), but the stem is disputed.^[1][4] The old view, given by Strong's lexicon and the Middle Liddell, takes it from ἔπος (épos, “word”), “not speaking”, like Latin īnfāns, but Chantraine rejects this, since no ancient tradition supports the sense “unable to speak”, although Hesychius glosses νηπύτιον (nēpútion) as “voiceless”.^[5][6][1][3] Kazansky derives it from a root Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep- (“strength”), which Beekes does not find convincing.^[4] Following van Beek, Beekes prefers Lacroix's proposal of 1937, “not ἤπιος (ḗpios)”, from Ancient Greek νη- (nē-) + ἤπιος (ḗpios), with a reconstruction *n̥-h₂p-ih₂o- from the same root in the sense “to join”, the root of ἅπτω (háptō, “to fasten”) and Latin aptus (“fitting”), whereas Frisk had counted Lacroix's idea among the unsatisfactory ones.^[4][2]

The Mycenaean name Mycenaean Greek na-pu-ti-jo corresponds to the Homeric variant νηπύτιος (nēpútios), which led Chantraine to wonder about a link with ἠπύω (ēpúō, “to call”).^[3][7] Clement of Alexandria explained νήπιος as “newly gentle”, from νέος (néos) and the word for “gentle”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is used often, both of infants and young children and of the young of animals, and figuratively of men who act like children: foolish, blind to what is coming.^[9][10][11] The Iliad also uses it of strength as feeble as a child's.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The double sense, “young” and “childish, foolish”, continues through archaic and classical poetry: Heraclitus, Empedocles, Pindar and Aeschylus use it of the foolish man, Pindar and Euripides of foolish words.^[9][10][12] In medicine it is used of children up to puberty and even of the foetus, and Aristotle uses the phrase ἐκ νηπίου, “from infancy”.^[9]

The Septuagint has it for infants and for the simple, and in the New Testament it is a child, a minor in law (Galatians), and, by contrast with the mature, one who is still immature in faith.^[13][14][15] Medieval Greek kept it as an adjective and its neuter as a noun, and Modern Greek has the learned νήπιο (nípio), a child between infancy and school age.^[16][17]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of children, of young animals and of foolish men.^[9][11][18]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days uses it of fools.^[18][10][19]
• 6th–5th century BC – Heraclitus uses it of a man without understanding.^[9][19]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses ἐκ νηπίου, from infancy.^[9][19]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Clement of Alexandria explains it as “newly gentle”.^[8]
• Modern Greek – The neuter lives on as the learned noun νήπιο (nípio), a small child.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Young in years; an infant, child; also of the young of animals.^[9][10]
2. Of strength, weak as a child's, puny.^[9][10]
3. Childish, foolish, without foresight; as a noun, a fool.^[9][10]
4. Of plants, young.^[9]
5. (New Testament) A minor in law; one immature in faith.^[14][9]

Word family

• νηπιέη (nēpiéē)
• νηπιότης (nēpiótēs)
• νηπιάζω (nēpiázō)
• νηπίαχος (nēpíakhos)
• νηπύτιος (nēpútios)

Related words

• ἤπιος (ḗpios)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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. ^ Strong, James (1890), A Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament, in The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, New York: Hunt & Eaton
6. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
11. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
12. ^ Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: De Gruyter
13. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
14. ^ a b 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
15. ^ Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
16. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
17. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
18. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
19. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge