νύμφη

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• νύμφα (númpha) (Doric)

Etymology

Unknown. Attempts have been made to link with Latin nūbō (“marry”) (English nubile), from Proto-Indo-European *snewbʰ- (“to marry, to wed”), but are problematic, not only because of a wide semantic difference, but also because of the internal nasal. Beekes argues for a origin.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ným.pʰɛː/ → /ˈnym.ɸi/ → /ˈnim.fi/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ným.pʰɛː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈnym.pʰe̝/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈnym.ɸi/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈnym.fi/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈnim.fi/

Noun

νῠ́μφη • (númphē) f (genitive νῠ́μφης); first declension

1. bride, young wife
2. young girl
3. daughter-in-law
4. nymph
5. spring, water
6. bee or wasp in pupa stage
7. male ant
8. clitoris

Inflection

First declension of ἡ νῠ́μφη; τῆς νῠ́μφης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ νῠ́μφη hē númphē	τὼ νῠ́μφᾱ tṑ númphā	αἱ νῠ́μφαι hai númphai
Genitive	τῆς νῠ́μφης tês númphēs	τοῖν νῠ́μφαιν toîn númphain	τῶν νῠμφῶν tôn numphôn
Dative	τῇ νῠ́μφῃ têi númphēi	τοῖν νῠ́μφαιν toîn númphain	ταῖς νῠ́μφαις taîs númphais
Accusative	τὴν νῠ́μφην tḕn númphēn	τὼ νῠ́μφᾱ tṑ númphā	τᾱ̀ς νῠ́μφᾱς tā̀s númphās
Vocative	νῠ́μφη númphē	νῠ́μφᾱ númphā	νῠ́μφαι númphai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Epic has vocative singular (probably Doric dialect): νύμφα (númpha).

Descendants

• English: nymph, lymph (via Latin)
• French: nymphe
• Greek: νύμφη f (nýmfi, “bride, nymph, pupa”), νύφη f (nýfi, “bride”)
• Latin: lympha, nympha
• Russian: ни́мфа f (nímfa)

Further reading

• “νύμφη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “νύμφη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “νύμφη”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• νύμφη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• 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
• νύμφη in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• G3565 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• νύμφη in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • bride idem, page 97.
  • elf idem, page 265.
  • fairy idem, page 302.
  • nymph idem, page 563.
  • sylph idem, page 850.

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Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek νύμφη (númphē).

Noun

νύμφη • (nýmfi) f (plural νύμφες)

1. bride
2. (Greek mythology) nymph, undine, water sprite, water spirit
3. (zoology) nymph, larva
4. (zoology) pupa, chrysalis

Declension

Declension of νύμφη

	singular	plural
nominative	νύμφη •	νύμφες •
genitive	νύμφης •	νυμφών •
accusative	νύμφη •	νύμφες •
vocative	νύμφη •	νύμφες •

Synonyms

• (bride): νύφη f (nýfi)
• (chrysalis, pupa): χρυσαλλίδα f (chrysallída)