ἰπνός

Forms

ῐ̓πνός (ipnós) m (genitive ῐ̓πνοῦ); second declension^[1] Attic also ἱπνός.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[3] It may come from *ἱπνός (*hipnós), with the rough breathing seen in the name Ἔφιπνος and an inscription.^[4][5] It has long been compared with Old English ofen, Old High German ovan and Old Norse ofn, from Proto-Germanic *ufnaz, and with Gothic 𐌰𐌿𐌷𐌽𐍃 (auhns), but the vowels and the Greek aspiration do not fit.^[4][3][5] Beekes also rejects the link with Sanskrit उखा (ukhā́, “pot, cooking pot”).^[4] He thinks Vine's proposal the most promising: Proto-Indo-European *sp̥-nó-, an old adjective in ⟨-nó-⟩ with active sense from *sep- (“to boil, bake”), the root of ἕψω (hépsō).^[4][1] Frisk records a possible Mycenaean form Mycenaean Greek i-po-no.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Semonides uses it of the place where the oven stands, the kitchen.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Herodotus and the Hippocratic writers use it of an oven or furnace, and Aristophanes of one for heating bath water.^[6][2] Aristophanes also uses it of a portable lantern, and in a fragment of a privy.^[6][2] Hesychius glosses it with the furnace word κάμινος (káminos) and the oven word φοῦρνος (phoûrnos).^[7]

Timeline

• 7th–6th century BC – Semonides uses it of the kitchen.^[6][8]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of an oven.^[6][9][8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of a lantern.^[6][2][8]
• 2nd–3rd century AD – Aelian uses it of a lantern.^[6][8]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as a furnace or oven.^[7][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An oven, furnace, also for heating bath water.^[6][2]
2. The place of the oven, the kitchen.^[6][2]
3. A portable lantern.^[6][2]
4. A privy, dunghill.^[6]

Word family

• ἰπνοπλάθος (ipnopláthos)
• ἰπνίον (ipníon)
• ἰπνολέβης (ipnolébēs)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b 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
4. ^ a b c d 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
5. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
8. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux