Etymologically
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πνέω

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /pné.ɔː/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈpne.o/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈpne.o/[1]

Forms

πνέω (pnéō) [1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pnew- (“to breathe, sneeze”),[1] a root that Beekes and LIV give only with a question mark.[2][3] Cunliffe and Babiniotis reconstruct the present as *πνέϝω (*pnéwō).[4][5] The verb and its derivatives have been much regularized, and the only isolated forms are the epic zero-grade ἄμπνυε (ámpnue, “take breath”) and its kin.[2][6] Beekes doubts that the perfect πέπνυμαι (pépnumai, “to be wise”) belongs here, and Chantraine thinks it was linked to πνέω only by folk etymology.[2][6]

The only comparable forms are Germanic: Old Norse fnýsa (“to sniff”) and Old English fnēosan (“to sneeze”), the source of English sneeze.[2][1] Beside them stand variants such as fnasa and Old High German fnehan, and Beekes thinks the whole group may be onomatopoeic.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on: the Iliad uses it for horses breathing, for all that breathes on earth, and for warriors “breathing fury”, and the Odyssey for winds blowing and for the sweet smell of ambrosia.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod uses it for breathing out fire.[7] In Sophocles “the breathing” are the living, and in Euripides “to breathe great things” is to give oneself airs.[7] With a genitive it meant to smell of something.[7] Its nouns πνοή (pnoḗ) and πνεῦμα (pneûma) meant wind and breath, and πνεῦμα also came to mean spirit.[2]

The Septuagint uses it of winds blowing and of breathing,[8] and the New Testament of the wind blowing.[9] The form πνεύω (pnévo) is found already in Late Greek.[10] Modern Greek πνέω (pnéo) is a learned word, used of winds, and in set phrases such as “to breathe one's last”.[11]

Timeline

  • Homer – The Iliad uses it for breathing and the Odyssey for winds blowing.[4][7]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for breathing out fire.[7]
  • 5th century BC – Sophocles calls the living “the breathing”.[7]
  • 5th century BC – Euripides uses “to breathe great things” for giving oneself airs.[7]
  • Modern Greek – It survives as a learned word, used of winds.[11]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of wind and air, to blow.[7][12]
  2. To breathe, draw breath; hence to live.[7][12][4]
  3. To breathe hard, pant.[12]
  4. To breathe forth spirit, fury or fire; to breathe something into a person, inspire.[7][4]
  5. To give off a smell; with a genitive, to smell of something.[7]

Word family

  • ἀναπνέω (anapnéō)
  • ἄπνευστος (ápneustos)
  • ἀποπνέω (apopnéō)
  • διαπνέω (diapnéō)
  • εἰσπνέω (eispnéō)
  • ἐκπνέω (ekpnéō)
  • ἐμπνέω (empnéō)
  • ἐπιπνέω (epipnéō)
  • ἡδύπνοος (hēdúpnoos)
  • καταπνέω (katapnéō)
  • προσπνέω (prospnéō)
  • πνεῦμα (pneûma)
  • πνεύμων (pneúmōn)
  • πνεῦσις (pneûsis)
  • πνευστιάω (pneustiáō)
  • πνοή (pnoḗ)
  • English sneeze

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
  4. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
  5. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
  6. ^ a b 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
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ 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
  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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press