ἀμφίβιος

Forms

ᾰ̓μφῐ́βῐος (amphíbios) m or f (neuter ᾰ̓μφῐ́βῐον); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “on both sides”) + βίος (bíos, “life”), literally “having life on both sides”.^[1][2][3] Theophrastus says that Democritus was the first to use it.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 4th century BC Aristotle applies it to the newt, and Theophrastus to plants that grow both in water and on land, so the earliest sense is amphibious.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The Batrachomyomachia gives the frogs an amphibious way of life, and later writers use it of animals and birds that feed both on land and in water, and Strabo says that human beings, too, are in a way amphibious.^[5][4] From the 2nd century AD it becomes a figure for anything that leads a double existence: Maximus of Tyre calls the moon amphibious between night and day, Lucian uses it of Tiresias, who lived as a man and as a woman, and Plotinus and later Neoplatonists of the soul, which belongs both to the world above and the world below.^[4][5] Pseudo-Dioscorides gives the neuter as a name of the aloe.^[4][5]

Latin borrowed it as amphibius.^[1] English amphibian (1630s, from the neuter plural) and amphibious (1640s) come from it, and the narrow zoological sense of the class between fishes and reptiles dates from 1835.^[6] Modern Greek αμφίβιος (amfívios) is a learned revival, used of animals, plants and vehicles, with the neuter plural as the name of the amphibians.^[7][3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Democritus, according to Theophrastus, is the first to use the word.^[4][5]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle applies it to the newt.^[5]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it of plants of land and water.^[4][5]
• 1st century BC – The Batrachomyomachia uses it of the frogs' way of life.^[4][5]
• 2nd century AD – Lucian calls Tiresias amphibious, and Maximus of Tyre the moon.^[4][5]
• 3rd century AD – Plotinus calls the soul amphibious, living in two worlds.^[4][5]
• 1630s – English forms amphibian from the neuter plural.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Living both on land and in water, amphibious; of plants, growing in both.^[4][5][2]
2. (figurative) Leading a double life; living in two worlds, of the soul, of man, of the moon.^[4][5]

Noun

1. (neuter) The aloe.^[4][5]

Related words

• ἀμφί (amphí)
• βίος (bíos)
• Latin amphibius
• English amphibian
• English amphibious

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
3. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki