Etymologically
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ὕπνος

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Pronunciation

  • 5th-century BC Attic: /hý.pnos/[1]
  • 4th-century AD Koine: /ˈy.pnos/[1]
  • 10th-century Byzantine: /ˈy.pnos/[1]

Forms

ῠ̔́πνος (húpnos) m (genitive ῠ̔́πνου); second declension[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *húpnos,[1] inherited from Proto-Indo-European *supnós (“sleep”).[1][2] The same zero-grade form is continued in Albanian gjumë, and other grades of the root in Lithuanian sãpnas, Old Irish súan, Old Norse svefn and Tocharian B ṣpane; Sanskrit स्वप्न (svápna) and Latin somnus can reflect either of the full grades.[2][1] Because three ablaut grades are found, Beekes suggests an older athematic n-stem; beside it stood an r-stem, seen in ὕπαρ (húpar, “waking vision”), which points to a Proto-Indo-European r/n-stem.[2] The nouns were probably formed on the verbal root Proto-Indo-European *swep- (“to fall asleep”).[2][3]

Ancient writers explained it otherwise: Choeroboscus derived it from ὑπό (hupó) and νόος (nóos), the mind “going under” in sleep, and Eustathius reports a derivation from “loosing pains”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it is sleep, and also the drowsiness that comes from weariness; in the Iliad Sleep is also a god.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Already in Homer and Hesiod it stands for the sleep of death, and in Hesiod and tragedy Sleep is the son of Night and the brother of Death.[6][7] From Herodotus on, phrases such as ἐν ὕπνῳ and καθ’ ὕπνον mean “in sleep”, often of what is seen in dreams.[6][7] In the Septuagint “eternal sleep” is death, and in the New Testament the word is used for literal sleep and, in Paul, for the spiritual sleep from which believers must wake.[8][9][10] The word continues as Modern Greek ύπνος (ýpnos).[11]

Timeline

  • Homer – sleep, drowsiness, and Sleep as a god.[5][6]
  • Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod makes Sleep a son of Night.[6][12][13]
  • 5th century BC – Herodotus uses ἐν ὕπνῳ for “in sleep”.[6][13]
  • 3rd century BC on – the Septuagint uses “eternal sleep” for death.[8]
  • 1st century AD – the New Testament uses it for literal sleep and, in Paul, figuratively.[10][9]
  • Modern Greek – it survives as ύπνος.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Sleep, slumber; figuratively, the sleep of death.[6][7]
  2. (personified) Sleep, son of Night and twin brother of Death.[6]
  3. Drowsiness, heaviness caused by weariness.[6][5]
  4. In phrases: ἐν ὕπνῳ, καθ’ ὕπνον in sleep, often of dreaming; περὶ πρῶτον ὕπνον about first sleep, early in the night.[6]
  5. (New Testament) Spiritual sleep, from which one must wake.[10][9]

Word family

  • ἄγρυπνος (ágrupnos)
  • ἐνύπνιος (enúpnios)
  • ὑπνοδότειρα (hupnodóteira)
  • ὑπνομαχέω (hupnomakhéō)
  • ὑπνόω (hupnóō)
  • ὑπνώδης (hupnṓdēs)
  • ὑπνώσσω (hupnṓssō)
  • ὑπνωτικός (hupnōtikós)
  • ὑπνώω (hupnṓō)
  • ὑπνηρός (hupnērós)
  • ὕπαρ (húpar)
  • ἐνύπνιον (enúpnion)
  • Latin somnus
  • English hypnosis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ Wodtko, Dagmar S.; Irslinger, Britta; Schneider, Carolin (2008), Nomina im indogermanischen Lexikon, Heidelberg: Winter
  4. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
  5. ^ a b c 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 Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  7. ^ a b c Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
  9. ^ a b c Abbott-Smith, G. (1922), A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
  12. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
  13. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge