κλεμμύς

Ancient Greek

Etymology

The formation is similar to that of synonymous words χέλυς (khélus) and ἐμύς (emús). Originally considered a folk-etymological adaptation to κλέμμα (klémma) and κλέπτω (kléptō, “to conceal”), because turtles can hide their bodies under their shell. Furnée compares κρεμύς (kremús, “a kind of fish”) and χρέμυς (khrémus, “a sort of cod”); these variants confirm that the word is Pre-Greek.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /klem.mýs/ → /klemˈmys/ → /kleˈmis/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /klem.mýs/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /klemˈmys/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /klemˈmys/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /klemˈmys/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /kleˈmis/

Noun

κλεμμῠ́ς • (klemmús) f (genitive κλεμμῠ́ος); third declension

1. tortoise

   Synonym: χελώνη (khelṓnē)

Inflection

Third declension of ἡ κλεμμῠ́ς; τῆς κλεμμῠός (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κλεμμῠ́ς hē klemmús	τὼ κλεμμῠ́ε tṑ klemmúe	αἱ κλεμμῠ́ες hai klemmúes
Genitive	τῆς κλεμμῠός tês klemmuós	τοῖν κλεμμῠοῖν toîn klemmuoîn	τῶν κλεμμῠῶν tôn klemmuôn
Dative	τῇ κλεμμῠῐ̈́ têi klemmuḯ	τοῖν κλεμμῠοῖν toîn klemmuoîn	ταῖς κλεμμῠσῐ́ / κλεμμῠσῐ́ν taîs klemmusí(n)
Accusative	τὴν κλεμμῠ́ν tḕn klemmún	τὼ κλεμμῠ́ε tṑ klemmúe	τᾱ̀ς κλεμμῦς / κλεμμῠ́ᾰς tā̀s klemmûs / klemmúas
Vocative	κλεμμῠ́ klemmú	κλεμμῠ́ε klemmúe	κλεμμῠ́ες klemmúes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Further reading

• “κλεμμύς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• 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