ὑπνόω

Forms

ὑπνόω (hupnóō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a denominative verb from Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”) with the suffix -όω (-óō).^[1][2][3] The noun goes back to Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *swep- (“to sleep”), as the zero-grade noun *sup-no-.^[4][5] Cognate with Albanian gjumë and Old Church Slavonic сънъ (sŭnŭ), from the same formation, and with Sanskrit स्वप्न (svápna) and Latin somnus.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Herodotus uses the passive perfect participle ὑπνωμένος, “asleep”.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek the verb is rare: besides Herodotus, Aristophanes has a Laconian form of the infinitive, and the Hippocratic Epidemics uses the active for sleeping.^[6][7] It became common in Hellenistic prose (Polybius, Plutarch).^[7][8] The Septuagint uses it for sleep, for causing to sleep (Genesis 2:21), and euphemistically for dying.^[9][6] The transitive sense “to put to sleep” is found in Dioscorides.^[6][10]

Its derivative ὑπνωτικός (hupnōtikós) “putting to sleep” passed through Late Latin and French into English hypnotic.^[11]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the passive perfect participle for someone fast asleep.^[6][7][12]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses a Laconian form of the infinitive.^[6][7][12]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses the active for falling asleep.^[6][7][12]
• 3rd–1st century BC – The Septuagint uses it for sleeping, for putting to sleep and for dying.^[9]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it of falling asleep.^[6][7][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, and passive) To sleep, fall asleep.^[6][7][3]
2. (transitive) To put to sleep.^[6][10]
3. (Septuagint) To die (euphemism).^[6][9]

Word family

• ὑπνωτικός (hupnōtikós)

Related words

• ὕπνος (húpnos)
• English hypnotic

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert (1889), An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Indo-European Lexicon (after Pokorny), Linguistics Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, https://lrc.la.utexas.edu/lex
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 c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Bailly, Anatole (2020), Dictionnaire grec-français, Bailly 2020 Hugo Chávez ed., ed. Gérard Gréco et al.
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge