πυραμίς

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Perhaps from Ancient Greek πῡραμός (pūramós) +‎ -ῐ́ς (-ís), from πῡρός (pūrós, “wheat”) + ἀμάω (amáō, “reap”), or from Egyptian pr-m-ws (“height of a pyramid”), from pr (“(one that) comes forth”) + m (“from”) + ws (“height^?”). If the ‘cake’ sense of the word is primary and was later applied to the Egyptian monuments from their resemblance in shape, then the Greek etymology is probable; however, the shape of the cake is unknown, and the ‘monument’ sense is attested a century earlier than the ‘cake’ sense, so that the Greek derivation is problematic. The Egyptian derivation is also problematic in that there is a gap of 1100 years between the attestation of pr-m-ws and that of πυραμίς. It is also possible that the ‘monument’ sense and the ‘cake’ sense were originally etymologically distinct but came to be identical due to folk etymology.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pyː.ra.mís/ → /py.raˈmis/ → /pi.raˈmis/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pyː.ra.mís/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /py.raˈmis/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /py.raˈmis/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /py.raˈmis/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /pi.raˈmis/

Noun

πῡρᾰμῐ́ς • (pūramís) f (genitive πῡρᾰμῐ́δος); third declension

1. pyramid
2. a type of cake

Declension

Third declension of ἡ πῡρᾰμῐ́ς; τῆς πῡρᾰμῐ́δος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ πῡρᾰμῐ́ς hē pūramís	τὼ πῡρᾰμῐ́δε tṑ pūramíde	αἱ πῡρᾰμῐ́δες hai pūramídes
Genitive	τῆς πῡρᾰμῐ́δος tês pūramídos	τοῖν πῡρᾰμῐ́δοιν toîn pūramídoin	τῶν πῡρᾰμῐ́δων tôn pūramídōn
Dative	τῇ πῡρᾰμῐ́δῐ têi pūramídi	τοῖν πῡρᾰμῐ́δοιν toîn pūramídoin	ταῖς πῡρᾰμῐ́σῐ / πῡρᾰμῐ́σῐν taîs pūramísi(n)
Accusative	τὴν πῡρᾰμῐ́δᾰ tḕn pūramída	τὼ πῡρᾰμῐ́δε tṑ pūramíde	τᾱ̀ς πῡρᾰμῐ́δᾰς tā̀s pūramídas
Vocative	πῡρᾰμῐ́ς pūramís	πῡρᾰμῐ́δε pūramíde	πῡρᾰμῐ́δες pūramídes
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

• Greek: πυραμίδα (pyramída)
• → Latin: pȳramis (see there for further descendants)

Further reading

• “πυραμίς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “πυραμίς”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• πυραμίς in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • pyramid idem, page 662.