σβέννυμι

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /zbén.nyː.mi/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈzβen.ny.mi/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈzven.ny.mi/^[1]

Forms

σβέννῡμῐ (sbénnūmi) ^[1]

Etymology

The whole verb is built on a stem ⟨σβεσ-⟩, seen in the aorist ⟨σβέσ(σ)αι⟩ and in ἄσβεστος (ásbestos, “unquenchable”): the present is from ⟨*σβέσ-νυ-μι⟩.^[2][3] The intransitive aorist ⟨ἔσβην⟩ was formed later, after ⟨ἔστην⟩ and similar aorists.^[2][3] Some Hesychian glosses with ζ-, such as ⟨ζείναμεν⟩ “we quench”, suggest a dialect form with ⟨σδ-⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷes- (“to extinguish”).^[2][3][4]

Cognates are Lithuanian gèsti (“to go out”), Proto-Slavic *gasiti (“to extinguish”), Sanskrit जासयति (jāsáyati, “exhausts”) and Tocharian ⟨käs-⟩ “to go out”.^[2][3][1] Beekes notes that if Hittite ⟨kištāri⟩ “is extinguished” belongs here, the root may rather have been ⟨*ges-⟩.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has the aorist for putting out a fire, and the intransitive aorist ⟨ἔσβη⟩ “went out”.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

It meant to quench or put out fire, and figuratively to quell anger, desire or violence; in the passive and the intransitive aorist and perfect, to go out, be extinguished.^[6][7][8] In the Septuagint it is used for quenching a feeling such as love, and in the passive for being quelled.^[8] In the New Testament the fire of Gehenna is not quenched, lamps go out for want of oil, and the Messiah does not quench the smouldering wick.^[9][10]

Derivatives include σβέσις (sbésis, “extinction”) and ἄσβεστος (ásbestos).^[2][3] It survives as Modern Greek σβήνω (svíno) “to put out, switch off, erase”.^[1]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it for quenching fire.^[5][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses the passive.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it for putting out a burning object.^[6]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it of quenching love.^[8]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament speaks of the unquenchable fire of Gehenna.^[9][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To quench, put out a fire or light.^[6][2]
2. (figurative) To quell, check, as anger or a feeling.^[8][10]
3. (intransitive and passive) To go out, be extinguished; to become extinct.^[2][6]

Word family

• ἄσβεστος (ásbestos)
• ἀνασβέννυμι (anasbénnumi)
• ἀποσβέννυμι (aposbénnūmi)
• ἐκσβέννυμι (eksbénnumi)
• ἐνσβέννυμαι (ensbénnumai)
• ἐπισβέννυμαι (episbénnumai)
• εὔσβεστος (eúsbestos)
• περισβέννυμι (perisbénnumi)
• συσβέννυμι (susbénnumi)

Related words

• σβέσις (sbésis)
• σβεστήριος (sbestḗrios)
• σβεστός (sbestós)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e f Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
5. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b c d Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ 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