Etymologically
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τῦφος

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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]

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