ὕπτιος

Forms

ῠ̔́πτῐος (húptios) m (feminine ῠ̔πτῐ́ᾱ, neuter ῠ̔́πτῐον); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from Proto-Indo-European *upó (“below, under”) with the suffix *-tio-, which stayed productive in Greek, as in αἴτιος (aítios) and ἄρτιος (ártios).^[2][1] The stem is that of ὑπό (hupó, “under”), ὑπέρ (hupér) and ὕπατος (húpatos).^[3] Saussure set up an older *ὑπότιος (*hupótios).^[3] Chantraine notes that the /t/ was not turned into /s/ before the /i/, perhaps to keep the word apart from the family of ὕψι (húpsi, “on high”), and that the role of the /t/ is unknown.^[3][4]

The word has the same meaning as Latin supīnus (“lying on the back”), formed from the related sub (“under”).^[3][2] Babiniotis also reports a view that it is a verbal adjective from the root of ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”), so that the word first meant someone sleeping on his back.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Iliad it is said of a man lying or falling on his back, the opposite of πρηνής (prēnḗs) “face down”: Achilles in his grief lies now on his side, now on his back, now on his face.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

From “on one's back” the word spread to anything turned upside down or with its hollow side up: an upturned helmet from which lots are shaken in Aeschylus, a shield laid face up in Aristophanes, the hand held out palm upwards to receive something.^[6][8] Sophocles says of a man who suffers shipwreck that he sails with his benches upside down.^[6] Aristotle calls the belly of an animal its ὕπτια parts, the side seen when it lies on its back.^[6][3] Herodotus uses it of flat, level land, and Plato has “to swim on one's back”.^[6][8]

Later it was used figuratively of people who are slack and careless, and of flat, tedious style; grammarians called the passive voice ὕπτιος.^[6][2][3] Modern Greek keeps ύπτιος (ýptios) as a learned word, “lying on one's back”, also in the name of the backstroke.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it of warriors falling on their backs.^[5][6]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of flat land.^[6][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses “from the back” of swimming and of going through an argument backwards.^[6][10]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle calls the underside of an animal its ὕπτια parts.^[6][10]
• Modern Greek – Modern Greek ύπτιος (ýptios) survives as a learned word.^[9][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lying or falling on one's back, supine.^[6][8][5]
2. Turned upside down, with the hollow or underside uppermost (of a helmet, shield, cup or hand).^[6][8]
3. Of land, flat and level; of the sea, smooth.^[6]
4. (figurative) Slack, careless; of style, flat and tedious.^[6][3]
5. (grammar) Passive.^[6][2]

Word family

• ὑπτιάζω (huptiázō)
• ἀνύπτιος (anúptios)

Related words

• ὑπό (hupó)
• πρηνής (prēnḗs)
• Latin supīnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
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 k l m n o Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b c d Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge