πνοή

Forms

πνοή (pnoḗ) f (genitive πνοῆς); first declension^[1] Epic πνοιή (pnoiḗ) (always so in Homer), Doric πνοά (pnoá), lyric πνοιά (pnoiá).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek πνέω (pnéō, “to blow, breathe”), with the suffix -η (-ē) and the o-grade of the root.^[1][3] Beekes explains the epic ⟨-οι-⟩ as a metrical form modelled on the epic present πνείω (pneíō).^[3] The verb has no secure cognates outside Greek: Beekes compares only some Germanic words for sniffing and sneezing, such as Old Norse fnýsa (“to sniff”) and Old English fnēosan (“to sneeze”), which may be onomatopoeic.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is a blast of wind, as in the phrase “with the blasts of the wind”, used of swift movement; the breath of hard-running horses; and, figuratively, the “breath of Hephaestus”, that is, flame.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Tragedy uses it freely for winds and breezes and, figuratively, for the breath of a god, of Aphrodite or of anger.^[2] It also meant a vapour or exhalation, such as the smell of incense or of a frying pan in comedy, the breath of a person, and the breath blown into pipes.^[2] LSJ notes that the word was poetic in classical Greek, used once by Thucydides of the blast of a bellows, and that later prose used it freely in place of πνεῦμα (pneûma).^[2]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is the wind of Pentecost and the breath of life that God gives to all, and “all that has breath” means every living being.^[5] Medieval Greek kept it, with dialect forms such as πνοά (pnoá) and οπνή (opní) that live on in modern dialects.^[6] Today Modern Greek πνοή (pnoí) means a breeze, the breath of life in set phrases, and, after French haleine, the breath of inspiration.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of blasts of wind, of horses' panting and of the breath of Hephaestus.^[2][4]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it of winds from the Strymon and of the vapour of a burning city, and Pindar of the breath of pipes.^[2]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it of the blast of a bellows.^[2]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular medieval Greek has it, with the dialect forms πνοά (pnoá) and οπνή (opní).^[6]
• Modern Greek – The learned πνοή (pnoí) means a breeze, breath and inspiration.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blowing, a blast of wind; a breeze.^[2][5]
2. Hard breathing, panting, of horses.^[2]
3. Breath.^[2] Figuratively, the breath of a god, of love or of anger.^[2] (Koine) the breath of life.^[2][5]
4. A vapour, exhalation, smell.^[2]
5. The breath of a wind instrument.^[2]
6. The blast of a bellows.^[2]

Word family

• ἀναπνοή (anapnoḗ)
• ἐπίπνοια (epípnoia)
• εὔπνοος (eúpnoos)
• ἄπνοος (ápnoos)

Related words

• πνέω (pnéō)
• πνεῦμα (pneûma)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki