σῆψις

Forms

σῆψῐς (sêpsis) f (genitive σήψεως); third declension^[1] Doric σᾶψις.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek σήπω (sḗpō, “to make rotten”) + -σις (-sis), the suffix of nouns of action.^[2][3][4] The verb itself is of unclear origin, perhaps Pre-Greek.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Empedocles is the first to use it, in the plural, naming putrefactions together with parching diseases.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The Hippocratic writers and Aristotle made it a technical word for putrefaction and fermentation: for Aristotle it is the end of natural decay.^[2][3] In his biology it is also the process by which the body rejects the part of food that does not nourish, as opposed to πέψις (pépsis, “digestion”),^[2][5] and Galen reports that Empedocles thought digestion itself took place by putrefaction.^[2][5] The grammarian Moeris equates the decay of bones with σφάκελος (sphákelos).^[2] The Septuagint uses it once, in Isaiah, for decay.^[6]

The word was still used in medieval vernacular Greek.^[7] In Modern Greek, σήψη (sípsi) is a learned word for decomposition by bacteria, and figuratively for great moral corruption.^[8] English sepsis is recorded from 1876, through Modern Latin.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Empedocles names putrefactions among diseases, and the Hippocratic Prorrhetic uses it of decay.^[2][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle makes it the end of natural decay and the opposite of digestion.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – The Doric form with ⟨α⟩ appears in Timaeus Locrus.^[2]
• 1100–1669 – Hermoniakos uses it of rotting.^[7]
• 1876 – English adopts sepsis through Modern Latin.^[9]
• Modern Greek – The learned σήψη (sípsi) is decomposition, and figuratively moral corruption.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Putrefaction, decay, fermentation.^[2][5][6]
2. (Aristotle) The process by which the body rejects the non-nourishing part of food, the opposite of digestion.^[2][5]

Related words

• σήπω (sḗpō)
• English sepsis

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 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. ^ Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
6. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux