Etymologically
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νεφέλη

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /ne.pʰé.lɛː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /neˈɸe.li/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /neˈfe.li/[1]

Forms

νεφέλη (nephélē) f (genitive νεφέλης); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *nebʰ-el-h₂ (“cloud”), one of two old inherited words for clouds.[2][1] Cognate with Latin nebula (“fog, cloud”) and Middle Welsh nyfel (“cloud”);[2] Germanic has the same l-suffix with other vowels and endings, as in Old Norse njól (“darkness”) and Old High German nebul (“mist”).[2] Babiniotis compares the suffix of κυψέλη (kupsélē).[3]

Beside it stands the neuter s-stem νέφος (néphos), which matches Hittite nepiš.[2]

Ancient writers explained it from νείφω (neíphō, “to snow”) and ἕλκω (hélkō, “to draw”) (the Suda), or as the thing that draws running water up from the sea (Orion and the Etymologicum Magnum).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a cloud in the sky, or a cloud or mist that hides someone; the “dark cloud” that covers a dying warrior is death, and a “cloud of grief” falls on a man.[5][6][7] Zeus is the νεφεληγερέτα (nephelēgeréta, “cloud-gatherer”).[2]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed mostly poetic, though Xenophon and Aristotle use it, Aristotle distinguishes it from ὁμίχλη (homíkhlē), mist.[6] Pindar and Sophocles speak of clouds of slaughter and of grief.[6][7] In Aristophanes the Clouds are goddesses, and also fine bird-nets; in Euripides the cloud is the phantom of Helen that Hera made.[7][6] Medical writers used it for a cloud in the urine and in the eye, Aristotle for a mist on a mirror, and the alchemists for a sublimate.[6][2]

In the New Testament a bright cloud overshadows Jesus at the Transfiguration, a sign of God's presence.[8] The word lived on in medieval Greek, with a Cypriot form ανεφέλη,[9] and Modern Greek uses νεφέλη (neféli) as a learned and literary word for a cloud.[10] The learned νεφέλωμα (nefélo̱ma, “nebula”) dates from 1882, rendering a French term.[3]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for clouds and mist, and for the cloud of death.[5][6]
  • 6th–5th century BC – Pindar speaks of an army of thundering cloud.[6]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses it for the cloud-phantom of Helen.[7]
  • 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes makes the Clouds goddesses and uses the word for a bird-net.[7][6]
  • 4th century BC – Aristotle distinguishes cloud from mist.[6]
  • 1st century AD – The New Testament tells of a bright cloud at the Transfiguration.[8]
  • Modern Greek – Modern Greek νεφέλη (neféli) is a learned and literary word for a cloud.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A cloud; a mass of clouds.[6][7]
  2. A cloud or mist that covers or hides; figuratively, of death and of sleep.[5][7]
  3. (figurative) A cloud of sorrow, war or slaughter.[6][7]
  4. (plural, personified) The Clouds as goddesses, in Aristophanes.[7]
  5. A cloud-phantom, the image of Helen made by Hera, in Euripides.[7]
  6. (medicine) A cloud in the urine or in the eye.[6][2]
  7. A mist on a mirror.[6]
  8. A fine-meshed bird-net.[6][7]
  9. (alchemy) A sublimate.[6]

Word family

  • ἐπινέφελος (epinéphelos)
  • νεφέλιον (nephélion)
  • ὑπερνέφελος (hupernéphelos)
  • νεφεληγερέτα (nephelēgeréta)
  • νεφελώδης (nephelṓdēs)

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  5. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki