Φοῖνιξ

See also: φοῖνιξ

Ancient Greek

Etymology

The ethnonym is homophonous with φοῖνιξ (phoînix), the Greek name of Tyrian purple. There has been some debate as to whether the ethnonym was derived from the name of the dye or vice versa. While it seems in any case likely that both are influenced by the genuinely Greek adjective φοινός (phoinós, “blood-red”), use of the ethnonym is found in use in ancient Mycenean as 𐀡𐀛𐀑𐀍 (po-ni-ki-jo). This in turn is apparently borrowed from the Egyptian fnḫw (fenkhu), probably their plural term for "woodcutters" or "carpenters", which would refer to the peoples of the land of Canaan in the region of the Levant to the north, who supplied Egypt with the cedar wood cut from their forests.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pʰôi̯.niks/ → /ˈɸy.niks/ → /ˈfi.niks/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pʰôi̯.niks/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpʰy.niks/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈɸy.niks/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈfy.niks/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈfi.niks/

Noun

Φοῖνῐξ • (Phoînix) m or f (genitive Φοίνῑκος); third declension

1. Phoenician
2. Carthaginian (as descendants of Phoenicia)

Proper noun

Φοῖνῐξ • (Phoînix) m (genitive Φοίνῑκος); third declension

1. Phoenix, a city on the Mediterranean Sea.

Inflection

• Inflection is the same for both noun and proper noun.

Third declension of ὁ, ἡ Φοῖνῐξ; τοῦ, τῆς Φοίνῑκος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ, ἡ Φοῖνῐξ ho, hē Phoînix	τὼ Φοίνῑκε tṑ Phoínīke	οἱ, αἱ Φοίνῑκες hoi, hai Phoínīkes
Genitive	τοῦ, τῆς Φοίνῑκος toû, tês Phoínīkos	τοῖν Φοινῑ́κοιν toîn Phoinī́koin	τῶν Φοινῑ́κων tôn Phoinī́kōn
Dative	τῷ, τῇ Φοίνῑκῐ tôi, têi Phoínīki	τοῖν Φοινῑ́κοιν toîn Phoinī́koin	τοῖς, ταῖς Φοίνῑξῐ / Φοίνῑξῐν toîs, taîs Phoínīxi(n)
Accusative	τὸν, τὴν Φοίνῑκᾰ tòn, tḕn Phoínīka	τὼ Φοίνῑκε tṑ Phoínīke	τοὺς, τᾱ̀ς Φοίνῑκᾰς toùs, tā̀s Phoínīkas
Vocative	Φοῖνῐξ Phoînix	Φοίνῑκε Phoínīke	Φοίνῑκες Phoínīkes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• Φοινίκη (Phoiníkē)
• Φοίνισσα (Phoínissa)
• Φοίνικικός (Phoínikikós)

Descendants

• Greek: Φοίνιξ (Foínix)
• Latin: Phoenīx
  • English: Phoenix

Further reading

• “Φοῖνιξ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Φοῖνιξ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “Φοῖνιξ”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• “Φοῖνιξ”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G5405 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, page 1,022