ῥοφέω

Forms

ῥοφέω (rhophéō) ^[1] Ionic ῥυφέω (Hipponax, Hippocrates); also ῥυμφάνω in the Hippocratic writings.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *hropʰéyō, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *srobʰéyeti, a causative of Proto-Indo-European *srebʰ- (“to slurp”).^[1][4] Beekes calls ῥοφέω an iterative-intensive formation.^[2] Most cognates have the zero grade Proto-Indo-European *srbʰ-: Lithuanian sur̃bti (“to suck”) and Latin sorbeō (“to suck in”).^[2][5] The full grade survives in Lithuanian srė̃bti (“to eat liquid food with a spoon”).^[2][5] The Ionic form ῥυφέω (rhuphéō) is not an old zero grade but an expressive, perhaps imitative, variant.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Theognis is the first to use the verb; in Aeschylus' Eumenides the Furies threaten to gulp the red blood of the living.^[6][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs both to everyday speech and, in medicine, to technical language.^[5] In comedy it is gulping down broth or lentil soup, and figuratively wages or peace.^[7] Sophocles uses it of Heracles' poisoned robe draining the breath from his lungs.^[7] The Hippocratic writers have the noun ῥόφημα (rhóphēma, “thick broth”), originally food that is slurped.^[2]

Medieval Greek changed it to Modern Greek ρουφώ (roufó), with /o/ becoming /u/ before the labial sound, and that is the Modern Greek verb for gulping or sucking up.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 6th century BC – Theognis is the first author known to use it.^[6][10]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus has the Furies gulp a victim's blood.^[3][7][10]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it figuratively of a robe draining the lungs, and Hippocratic writers have the noun ῥόφημα.^[7][2][10]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it of gulping soup, and Xenophon has the compound ἀπορροφέω.^[7][3][10]
• Modern Greek – It survives as Modern Greek ρουφώ (roufó).^[8][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gulp down, slurp up greedily.^[7][3]
2. (figurative) To drain, empty.^[7]

Word family

• ἐκροφέω (ekrophéō)
• καταρροφέω (katarrophéō)
• ἀπορροφέω (aporrophéō)

Related words

• ῥόφημα (rhóphēma)
• Latin sorbeō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Rix, Helmut, et al. (2001), Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben, 2nd ed., Wiesbaden: Reichert
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge