ἐμπίς

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Popular derivation from ἐμπίνω (empínō, “to drink (blood)”). Pokorny connects Proto-West Germanic *imbī (“bee”), deriving both from Proto-Indo-European *h₁empís (“gnat, biting insect”), though Kroonen rejects this comparison and Mallory and Adams call it "not universally accepted."

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /em.pís/ → /emˈpis/ → /emˈbis/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /em.pís/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /emˈpis/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /emˈpis/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /emˈpis/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /emˈbis/

Noun

ἐμπῐ́ς • (empís) f (genitive ἐμπῐ́δος); third declension

1. mosquito, gnat
2. larva of the oestrus

Declension

Third declension of ἡ ἐμπῐ́ς; τῆς ἐμπῐ́δος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ἐμπῐ́ς hē empís	τὼ ἐμπῐ́δε tṑ empíde	αἱ ἐμπῐ́δες hai empídes
Genitive	τῆς ἐμπῐ́δος tês empídos	τοῖν ἐμπῐ́δοιν toîn empídoin	τῶν ἐμπῐ́δων tôn empídōn
Dative	τῇ ἐμπῐ́δῐ têi empídi	τοῖν ἐμπῐ́δοιν toîn empídoin	ταῖς ἐμπῐ́σῐ / ἐμπῐ́σῐν taîs empísi(n)
Accusative	τὴν ἐμπῐ́δᾰ tḕn empída	τὼ ἐμπῐ́δε tṑ empíde	τᾱ̀ς ἐμπῐ́δᾰς tā̀s empídas
Vocative	ἐμπῐ́ς empís	ἐμπῐ́δε empíde	ἐμπῐ́δες empídes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Nominative singular -ς (-s) arose by reduction of the original cluster *-ds.

Descendants

• → Translingual: Empis

References

• Pokorny, Julius (1959) chapter 311, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 311
• Mallory, J. P., Adams, D. Q., editors (1997), Encyclopedia of Indo-European culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 312

Further reading

• “ἐμπίς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ἐμπίς in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἐμπίς in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 418