νέπετος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• νέπιτα (népita)

Etymology

According to André, νέπιτα (népita) was taken from Latin nepeta (“catmint”). Furnée considers the origin of the Latin word to be Ancient Greek *νεπετα (*nepeta). Altogether, these variants point to Pre-Greek origin. Note the Pre-Greek suffix *-ετ- (*-et-), *-ιτ- (*-it-) and the vowel alternation.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /né.pe.tos/ → /ˈne.pe.tos/ → /ˈne.pe.tos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /né.pe.tos/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈne.pe.tos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈne.pe.tos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈne.pe.tos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈne.pe.tos/

Noun

νέπετος • (népetos) m (genitive νεπέτου); second declension

1. catmint (Nepeta cataria)

   Synonym: καλαμίνθη (kalamínthē)

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ νέπετος; τοῦ νεπέτου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ νέπετος ho népetos	τὼ νεπέτω tṑ nepétō	οἱ νέπετοι hoi népetoi
Genitive	τοῦ νεπέτου toû nepétou	τοῖν νεπέτοιν toîn nepétoin	τῶν νεπέτων tôn nepétōn
Dative	τῷ νεπέτῳ tôi nepétōi	τοῖν νεπέτοιν toîn nepétoin	τοῖς νεπέτοις toîs nepétois
Accusative	τὸν νέπετον tòn népeton	τὼ νεπέτω tṑ nepétō	τοὺς νεπέτους toùs nepétous
Vocative	νέπετε népete	νεπέτω nepétō	νέπετοι népetoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Further reading

• “νέπετος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• νέπετος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “νέπετος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1010
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014) Stefan Norbruis, editor, Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 34: “49 -ετ-ο-”