ἐλέφας

Ancient Greek

Wikipedia

Etymology

Loanword, compound of Berber *eḷu and Egyptian

ȝbw, which also gave Sanskrit इभ (íbha).

Pronunciation

• (5th BC Attic): IPA: /elépʰa͜as/

• (1st BC Egyptian): IPA: /ɛlɛ́pʰaːs/

• (4th AD Koine): IPA: /eléɸas/

• (10th AD Byzantine): IPA: /eléfas/

• (15th AD Constantinopolitan): IPA: /eléfas/

Noun

ἐλέφας (genitive ἐλέφαντος) m, third declension; (elephās)

1. ivory
2. elephant

Inflection

Third declension of ἐλέφᾱς, ἐλέφαντος

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ἐλέφᾱς	τὼ ἐλέφαντε	οἱ ἐλέφαντες
Genitive	τοῦ ἐλέφαντος	τοῖν ἐλεφάντοιν	τῶν ἐλεφάντων
Dative	τῷ ἐλέφαντῐ	τοῖν ἐλεφάντοιν	τοῖς ἐλέφᾱσῐ(ν)
Accusative	τὸν ἐλέφαντᾰ	τὼ ἐλέφαντε	τοὺς ἐλέφαντᾰς
Vocative	ἐλέφᾰν	ἐλέφαντε	ἐλέφαντες

Derived terms

• Ἐλεφαντίνη

Descendants

• English:
  • New English: elephant
  • Middle English: olifaunt
• Esperanto: elefanto
• French: éléphant
• German: Elefant
• Greek: ελέφας (eléfas); ελέφαντας (eléfantas)
• Ido: elefanto
• Italian: elefante
• Latin: elephas; elephans; elephantus
• Vulgar Latin: olifantus
• Volapük: leefad

References

• Woodhouse’s English-Greek Dictionary page 265