ταπεινός

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Has been connected with Old Norse þefja (“to stamp”) and þōf (“crowd”) but this theory is not convincing. Probably from Pre-Greek.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ta.peː.nós/ → /ta.piˈnos/ → /ta.piˈnos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ta.peː.nós/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ta.piˈnos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ta.piˈnos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ta.piˈnos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ta.piˈnos/

Adjective

τᾰπεινός • (tapeinós) m (feminine τᾰπεινή, neuter τᾰπεινόν); first/second declension

1. low
   1. low-lying (of place)
   2. humbled, abased in power, pride; submissive; small, poor, weak (of persons)
   3. downcast, dejected (of the mood)
   4. (bad in a moral sense): mean, base, abject
   5. (good in a moral sense): lowly, humble
   6. mean, low, poor (of things)

Inflection

First and second declension of τᾰπεινός; τᾰπεινή; τᾰπεινόν (Attic)

Number		Singular				Dual				Plural
Case/Gender		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative		τᾰπεινός tapeinós	τᾰπεινή tapeinḗ	τᾰπεινόν tapeinón		τᾰπεινώ tapeinṓ	τᾰπεινᾱ́ tapeinā́	τᾰπεινώ tapeinṓ		τᾰπεινοί tapeinoí	τᾰπειναί tapeinaí	τᾰπεινᾰ́ tapeiná
Genitive		τᾰπεινοῦ tapeinoû	τᾰπεινῆς tapeinês	τᾰπεινοῦ tapeinoû		τᾰπεινοῖν tapeinoîn	τᾰπειναῖν tapeinaîn	τᾰπεινοῖν tapeinoîn		τᾰπεινῶν tapeinôn	τᾰπεινῶν tapeinôn	τᾰπεινῶν tapeinôn
Dative		τᾰπεινῷ tapeinôi	τᾰπεινῇ tapeinêi	τᾰπεινῷ tapeinôi		τᾰπεινοῖν tapeinoîn	τᾰπειναῖν tapeinaîn	τᾰπεινοῖν tapeinoîn		τᾰπεινοῖς tapeinoîs	τᾰπειναῖς tapeinaîs	τᾰπεινοῖς tapeinoîs
Accusative		τᾰπεινόν tapeinón	τᾰπεινήν tapeinḗn	τᾰπεινόν tapeinón		τᾰπεινώ tapeinṓ	τᾰπεινᾱ́ tapeinā́	τᾰπεινώ tapeinṓ		τᾰπεινούς tapeinoús	τᾰπεινᾱ́ς tapeinā́s	τᾰπεινᾰ́ tapeiná
Vocative		τᾰπεινέ tapeiné	τᾰπεινή tapeinḗ	τᾰπεινόν tapeinón		τᾰπεινώ tapeinṓ	τᾰπεινᾱ́ tapeinā́	τᾰπεινώ tapeinṓ		τᾰπεινοί tapeinoí	τᾰπειναί tapeinaí	τᾰπεινᾰ́ tapeiná
Derived forms		Adverb				Comparative				Superlative
		τᾰπεινῶς tapeinôs				τᾰπεινότερος tapeinóteros				τᾰπεινότᾰτος tapeinótatos
Notes:		This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Synonyms

• ἄβδελλον (ábdellon)

Derived terms

• τᾰπεινολογῐ́ᾱ (tapeinologíā)
• τᾰπεινότης (tapeinótēs)
• τᾰπεινόω (tapeinóō)

 

Further reading

• “ταπεινός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ταπεινός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ταπεινός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “ταπεινός”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G5011 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • abject idem, page 2.
  • base idem, page 64.
  • contrite idem, page 170.
  • cowering idem, page 181.
  • cringing idem, page 184.
  • degraded idem, page 206.
  • degrading idem, page 206.
  • deprecating idem, page 213.
  • grovelling idem, page 375.
  • humble idem, page 409.
  • inglorious idem, page 440.
  • low idem, page 502.
  • low-born idem, page 503.
  • lowly idem, page 503.
  • mean idem, page 519.
  • obscure idem, page 566.
  • obsequious idem, page 566.
  • patient idem, page 598.
  • penitent idem, page 603.
  • plebeian idem, page 620.
  • repentant idem, page 696.
  • subdued idem, page 830.
  • submissive idem, page 831.
  • subservient idem, page 832.
  • suppliant idem, page 840.
  • unambitious idem, page 906.
  • unaspiring idem, page 907.
  • unassuming idem, page 907.
  • ungentle idem, page 919.
  • vile idem, page 952.
• 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