φῶς

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /pʰɔ̂ːs/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /ˈɸos/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /ˈfos/^[1]

Forms

φῶς (phôs) n (genitive φωτός); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is the Attic contraction of φάος (pháos) “light”,^[2][3][4] which is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos,^[1] from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”).^[2][1] Beekes and Frisk trace the whole group to a thematic aorist *φαϝεῖν, seen only in the Homeric φάε (pháe) “appeared, shone” and a few other rare forms; the Pamphylian spelling φάβος (phábos) keeps the old /w/.^[2][3]

After the contraction the old s-stem (genitive φάους) was remade as a t-stem, genitive φωτός (phōtós), on the model of χρώς (khrṓs) and ἔρως (érōs); epic φόως (phóōs) is the same contracted form with its vowel “stretched” for metre.^[2][3][1] Beekes and Frisk find it unnecessary to assume a separate inherited form φῶς.^[2][3] Wiktionary compares Latin iubar (“radiance”), Sanskrit भास् (bhā́s, “light”) and Old English basu (“purple”).^[1] Related within Greek are φαίνω (phaínō) and φαεινός (phaeinós) “shining”.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer has only the uncontracted φάος and epic φόως, never φῶς.^[4] They mean the light of day and of the sun, which stands for life itself (“to leave the light of the sun” is to die), the light of a lamp, a dear person (“you have come, Telemachus, sweet light”), help or deliverance in battle, and in the plural the eyes.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The tragedians use φάος or φῶς as the metre requires, and in prose φῶς is the only form of the nominative and accusative.^[4] “To see the light” meant to be alive, and “into the light” meant into existence or into public view.^[6][7]

Hellenistic Greek built new words on the stem φωτ-: φωτεινός (phōteinós) “luminous” (from Xenophon on) and φωτίζω (phōtízō) “to give light, enlighten”, which Christians also used of baptism.^[2][7] In the Septuagint light appears at Genesis 1:3 and becomes a common metaphor; in the New Testament the word is used of God and of spiritual illumination, the light of truth.^[8][6][9] Christian writers applied it to God, to Christ, to the Trinity and to angels and saints, as in the Creed's “light from light”.^[10]

It survives as Modern Greek φως (fos).^[11] Triantafyllidis notes that some of its learned senses are modelled on French lumière.^[11] Modern Greek φωτιά (fotiá) “fire” is a reshaped form of it.^[1]

Timeline

• Homer – φάος and φόως for daylight and life.^[4][5]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides speak of the “light of heaven” and the “light of the upper air”.^[4][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato writes of the light of the sun, and Xenophon has the derivative φωτεινός.^[4][2][12]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses ἅμα τῷ φωτί, “at daybreak”.^[4][12]
• 1st century AD – the New Testament uses it of God and spiritual light.^[6][9]
• Modern Greek – φως, with senses partly modelled on French lumière.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Light of day, daylight; in phrases “to see the light”, to be alive.^[6][4]
2. Broad daylight, full public view.^[6]
3. With εἰς or ἐς: into existence, back to life, into sight or into public.^[6]
4. (tragedy) A day.^[6]
5. The light of the moon or stars.^[6]
6. Light from torches or fires; a torch or lamp.^[6][5]
7. (figurative) Brilliance; the shining light of victory, deliverance or hope; a dear person.^[6][5]
8. (New Testament) God as light; spiritual illumination, the light of truth.^[6][9]
9. (usually plural, poetic) The eyes.^[6][5]

Word family

• φωτεινός (phōteinós)
• φωτίζω (phōtízō)
• φωτισμός (phōtismós)
• φωσφόρος (phōsphóros)
• φωταγωγός (phōtagōgós)

Related words

• φάος (pháos)
• φαίνω (phaínō)
• φαεινός (phaeinós)
• English phosphorus

Usage notes

The lexicographers distinguish φῶς “light” from the acute-accented φώς (phṓs) “man”, a poetic word of uncertain origin; an old proposal links it with the root for “shine”, which Beekes finds semantically implausible.^[13][14][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
7. ^ a b Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
11. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
13. ^ Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
14. ^ Adler, Ada, ed. (1928–1938), Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols, Leipzig: Teubner