φῦμα

Forms

φῦμᾰ (phûma) n (genitive φῡ́μᾰτος); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek φύω (phúō, “to grow, bring forth”) + -μα (-ma), a noun of result, “what has grown”.^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary traces it as a whole to Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHmn̥, formally identical with Sanskrit भूमन् (bhūman, “world, territory”).^[1] The verb belongs to the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰu̯eh₂- (“to grow, arise, become”), whose aorist is matched by Sanskrit अभूत् (ábhūt, “he became”) and Latin fuī (“I was”).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Archilochus uses it, with a long /u/, for something that grows.^[3] From Herodotus on it is mostly a diseased growth on the body.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Herodotus, the Hippocratic writers and Plato's Timaeus it is a tumour or swelling, and the medical writers say that “a growth grows” on a patient; an inscription from Epidaurus of the 4th century BC and Theophrastus also use it.^[3][4][6] Aretaeus uses it figuratively, for the beginning of a fresh life.^[3] Hesychius glosses it with “itch” or “another growth”, and Zonaras with “sprouting”.^[7][8]

It was borrowed as Latin phȳma, from which come the English medical terms phyma and rhinophyma.^[1] Modern Greek has the learned φύμα (fýma), in medicine a swelling or growth on the skin or a protuberance of a bone.^[9][10] Its derivative φυματίωση (fymatíosi) means “tuberculosis”.^[1]

Timeline

• 7th century BC – Archilochus uses it for “that which grows”.^[3][11]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus and the Hippocratic writers use it for a tumour or growth on the body.^{[3][4][6][11]}
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses it of diseased growths in the Timaeus.^[3][6][11]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses it.^[4][11]
• 2nd century AD – Aretaeus uses it figuratively for the start of a new life.^[3][11]
• Modern Greek – The learned φύμα (fýma) is a medical word for a swelling or growth.^[9][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A growth, that which grows.^[3]
2. (medicine) A diseased growth on the body: tumour, tubercle, swelling.^[3][4][12]
3. (figurative) A new growth, a beginning.^[3]

Word family

• ἔκφυμα (ékphuma)
• φυμάτιον (phumátion)

Related words

• φυτόν (phutón)
• φύσις (phúsis)
• Latin phyma
• English phyma
• English rhinophyma

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
8. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
11. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
12. ^ Korinthios, J. (2025), Grande Dizionario Greco Classico: Greco–Italiano, digital ed., Milan: Hoepli