νηνία

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Unknown. It is supposed to be the origin of Latin nēnia (“dirge, elegy”). The word νηνίατον (nēníaton, “Phrygian tune for the flute”) is ascribed by Hipponax by Julius Pollux.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /nɛː.ní.aː/ → /niˈni.a/ → /niˈni.a/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /nɛː.ní.aː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ne̝ˈni.a/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /niˈni.a/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /niˈni.a/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /niˈni.a/

Noun

νηνῐ́ᾱ • (nēníā) f (genitive νηνῐ́ᾱς); first declension

1. public eulogy on great men, sometimes accompanied by the flute
2. lament, dirge, elegy

Inflection

First declension of ἡ νηνῐ́ᾱ; τῆς νηνῐ́ᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ νηνῐ́ᾱ hē nēníā	τὼ νηνῐ́ᾱ tṑ nēníā	αἱ νηνῐ́αι hai nēníai
Genitive	τῆς νηνῐ́ᾱς tês nēníās	τοῖν νηνῐ́αιν toîn nēníain	τῶν νηνῐῶν tôn nēniôn
Dative	τῇ νηνῐ́ᾳ têi nēníāi	τοῖν νηνῐ́αιν toîn nēníain	ταῖς νηνῐ́αις taîs nēníais
Accusative	τὴν νηνῐ́ᾱν tḕn nēníān	τὼ νηνῐ́ᾱ tṑ nēníā	τᾱ̀ς νηνῐ́ᾱς tā̀s nēníās
Vocative	νηνῐ́ᾱ nēníā	νηνῐ́ᾱ nēníā	νηνῐ́αι nēníai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

• → Latin: nēnia

Further reading

• “νηνία”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• νηνία in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• 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