ἐλέφας

Ancient Greek

Wikipedia

Etymology

Loanword, compound of Berber *eḷu and Egyptian

ȝbw, which also gave Sanskrit इभ (íbha).

Pronunciation

• (Classical): IPA: [elépʰaːs]
• (Koine): IPA: [ɛlˈɛpʰaːs]
• (Byzantine): IPA: [elˈeɸas]

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	τώ ἐλέφαντε	οἱ ἐλέφαντες
Genitive	τοῦ ἐλέφαντος	τοῖν ἐλεφάντοιν	τῶν ἐλεφάντων
Dative	τῷ ἐλέφαντῐ	τοῖν ἐλεφάντοιν	τοῖς ἐλέφᾱσῐ(ν)
Accusative	τόν ἐλέφαντᾰ	τώ ἐλέφαντε	τούς ἐλέφαντᾰς
Vocative	ἐλέφᾰν	ἐλέφαντε	ἐλέφαντες

Derived terms

• Ἐλεφαντίνη

Descendants

• Middle English: olifaunt
• English: elephant
• French: éléphant
• Greek: ελέφας (eléfas); ελέφαντας (eléfantas)
• Latin: elephas; elephans; elephantus
• Vulgar Latin: olifantus
• Italian: elefante

References

• Woodhouse’s English-Greek Dictionary page 265