τῦφος

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /tŷː.pʰos/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈty.ɸos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈty.fos/^[1]

Forms

τῦφος (tûphos) m (genitive τύφου); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from the verb τύφω (tū́phō, “to smoke”), with the suffix -ος.^[1][2] Its senses run from smoke and vapour to delusion and vanity,^[1] and Plutarch likens conceit to the smoke of philosophy.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first recorded use is medical: the Hippocratic Internal Affections (5th century BC) names four kinds of fever τῦφος, one of them accompanied by stupor.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It became the Cynics' word for delusion and humbug: Monimus the Cynic said that “everything is τῦφος”, and Menander quotes him.^[3][6] Sextus Empiricus defines it as taking what is not for what is.^[3] Polybius and Plutarch use it for false pride and conceit, and Marcus Aurelius calls the things of the soul a dream and τῦφος.^[6][3] In early Christian writing it is arrogance.^[2]

New Latin borrowed the medical word as typhus, the name of the disease;^[1] Modern Greek τύφος, a learned form, is the disease typhus.^[7]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – A Hippocratic treatise uses it for a kind of fever.^[3][5]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Menander quotes the Cynic saying that “everything is τῦφος”.^[3][5]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it for conceit.^[6][5]
• 2nd century AD – Marcus Aurelius uses it for illusion.^[3][5]
• Modern Greek – τύφος is the disease typhus.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) A kind of fever with stupor; delirium.^[3][6]
2. Delusion, illusion, humbug.^[3][6]
3. False pride, conceit, vanity.^[6][2]
4. Smoke, vapour.^[1]

Related words

• English typhus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki