πρηνής

Forms

πρηνής (prēnḗs) m or f (neuter πρηνές); third declension^[1] Attic πρανής (prānḗs), genitive πρανοῦς (pranoûs) (Xenophon); the Ionic form is also used by Aristotle, Josephus, Plutarch and Galen.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed like ἀπηνής (apēnḗs) and προσηνής (prosēnḗs), from Ancient Greek πρό (pró) + *ἦνος (*ênos, “face”), the second element being a noun usually assumed for these words, so that the word meant “face forward”.^[5][6][7] Frisk compares Latin praeceps (“headlong”).^[6] Beekes calls this analysis doubtful, because the Sanskrit noun that would match it does not exist and the Sanskrit word for “mouth” that Chantraine adduces is of uncertain formation.^[5][4] Bechtel, following Pott, compared Latin prōnus (“leaning forward”) instead, which Walde and Hofmann reject.^[6]

The Ionic and epic form πρηνής spread in later Greek at the expense of Attic πρανής (prānḗs) because of the compounds just named and σαφηνής (saphēnḗs).^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad warriors fall face down, the opposite of ὕπτιος (húptios, “on one's back”), and the poem speaks of throwing Priam's palace headlong to the ground (2.414).^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Homer has it almost always with verbs of falling, “headlong, face down”.^[2][7] The Hippocratic writers use it of the arm turned palm downwards, and later writers of knucklebones that land face down and of a capsized ship, bottom up.^[2][3] In Aristotle it named the upper side of an animal on all fours, the back.^[4] Xenophon uses the Attic form of steep ground, and “down the slope” for riding downhill.^[3][4]

In Acts 1:18 it is usually read as “falling headlong”, but some scholars, and LSJ as a possibility, take it there as “swollen”.^[8][2] It survives in Modern Greek as the learned πρηνής (prinís), “lying face down”.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of warriors falling face down.^[2][7]
• 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writers use it of the arm turned palm down.^[2][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses the Attic form of steep ground.^[3][4][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the back of a four-footed animal.^[4][2][10]
• 1st century AD – The Acts of the Apostles uses it of a man falling headlong.^[8][2]
• Modern Greek – πρηνής (prinís) means “lying face down”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Face down, prone, lying on the front, the opposite of ὕπτιος (húptios).^[2][3]
2. Falling forwards, headlong; of a building, thrown down in ruin.^[2][3][7]
3. Of the hand, palm down; of a ship, bottom up.^[2][3]
4. Of ground, steep, sloping down.^[3][5]

Related words

• πρανής (prānḗs)
• ἀπηνής (apēnḗs)
• προσηνής (prosēnḗs)

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
7. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
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. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge