ἐννέα

Forms

ἐννέᾰ (ennéa) (ordinal ἔνᾰτος, adverbial ἐνᾰ́κῐς)^[1] Mycenaean Greek e-ne-wo (in compounds).^[2] Heraclean hεννέα (after ἑπτά, ὀκτώ); Delphian and Cyrenaean ἐννῆ.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *ennéwə,^[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁néwn̥ (“nine”).^[3][1] Cognate with Sanskrit नव (náva), Latin novem (with ⟨-m⟩ after decem and septem), Lithuanian devynì (with ⟨d-⟩ by dissimilation or after dẽšimt), Old English nigon and Old Armenian ինն (inn).^[3][1][5]

Beekes reconstructs the initial *h₁- because both Greek and Armenian begin with a vowel, which also rules out a link with νέος (néos, “new”);^[3] Szemerényi, as Chantraine reports, sees a prothetic vowel peculiar to these two languages instead.^[6][3] The older stem *ἐνϝα- (*enwa-) (from *h₁n̥wn̥-) survives in ἐνα- (ena-) and Ionic εἰνα- (eina-), as in ἔνατος (énatos, “ninth”) and εἰνάετες (einaétes, “for nine years”).^[3][5] The double ⟨νν⟩ is unexplained:^[2] Ward thought it came from the long syllables of ἑπτά (heptá) and ὀκτώ (oktṓ), and Sommer from the compounds, but Beekes finds both improbable.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Mycenaean tablets have it as e-ne-wo-.^[2] In Homer it is the number nine, as in the nine days of the Iliad (6.174), and the Odyssey and Hesiod speak of the nine Muses.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

“Three times nine” served as a round number for “many”, as in Iliad 16.785, and as a ritual number: Sophocles has thrice nine sprigs in a rite, and an oracle in Thucydides speaks of thrice nine years.^[4] In the New Testament it is part of “ninety-nine” (Matthew 18:12, Luke 15:4), and Luke 17:17 has “the nine” for the others.^[8]

Medieval vernacular texts write it εννία or εννιά,^[9] and today the word is Modern Greek εννιά (enniá) beside the learned εννέα (ennéa).^[9][10]

Timeline

• Mycenaean – The Linear B tablets have e-ne-wo-.^[2]
• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for nine.^[4][7]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Theogony names the nine Muses.^[4][2]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses “thrice nine” of a ritual number.^[4][2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament has it in “ninety-nine” and in “the nine”.^[8]
• Medieval Greek – Vernacular texts write εννιά.^[9]
• Modern Greek – It survives as εννιά and εννέα.^[9][10]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Nine.^[4][11]
2. In “thrice nine”, a round number for many, or a ritual number.^[4]

Word family

• ἔνατος (énatos)
• ἐνενήκοντα (enenḗkonta)
• ἐννεάς (enneás)
• ἐνάκις (enákis)
• ἐννῆμαρ (ennêmar)

Related words

• Latin novem
• English nine

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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
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 Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b 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
9. ^ a b c d Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
10. ^ a b Βικιλεξικό, the Greek Wiktionary, https://el.wiktionary.org
11. ^ Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press