σίφων

Forms

σῑ́φων (sī́phōn) m (genitive σῑ́φωνος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

The origin is unknown.^[2][3] It is a technical term, formed like ἄμβων (ámbōn) and δόλων (dólōn).^[2][3] Beekes and Chantraine suggest it may imitate a sound.^[2][3] Wiktionary mentions a sound-symbolic loan from a Mediterranean substrate, and the usual comparison with Latin tībia (“shinbone; pipe”), itself of unclear origin.^[1]

The Etymologicum Magnum derived it from the noise made in sucking up a liquid, or from σίζω (sízō, “to hiss”).^[4]

It was borrowed as Latin sīphō (“siphon; fire engine”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in the iambic poet Hipponax, in the 6th century BC, for a siphon used to draw wine from a jar.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

A papyrus of the 3rd century BC uses it in the same sense, and Hero defines it as a bent tube.^[6] In Euripides' Cyclops it is used obscenely.^[6] Later it named a pipe in general, a drainage tube in surgery, a pump, a fire engine, the water pipes of houses (in Strabo) and a waterspout; an epigram of Meleager calls mosquitoes “siphons of men's blood”.^[6][7]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Hipponax uses it for a wine siphon.^[6][7][8]
• 5th century BC – Euripides uses it in an obscene sense in the Cyclops.^[6][9]
• 4th century BC – Aeneas Tacticus uses it for a tube.^[6][9]
• 1st century BC – 1st century AD – Strabo uses it for water pipes in houses.^[6][8]
• 2nd century AD – A London papyrus uses it for a pump.^[6][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tube, pipe.^[6][2]
2. A siphon, especially for drawing wine from a cask or jar.^[6]
3. A drainage tube in surgery.^[6]
4. A pump; a fire engine; a water pipe in a house.^[6][7]
5. A waterspout.^[6]
6. A plant, the same as αἰγίλωψ (aigílōps), a kind of oat-grass.^[2]

Word family

• σιφωνολογία (siphōnología)

Related words

• Latin sīphō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 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. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e 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
8. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux