πήνη

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)penh₁- (“to weave, to twist”) and cognate with Ancient Greek πένομαι (pénomai, “to exert oneself”), Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”) and Lithuanian pìnti (“to twist”). Beekes, however, rejects this proposal and leaves the origin open.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pɛ̌ː.nɛː/ → /ˈpi.ni/ → /ˈpi.ni/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pɛ̌ː.nɛː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpe̝.ne̝/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ni/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ni/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.ni/

Noun

πήνη • (pḗnē) f (genitive πήνης); first declension

1. thread on the bobbin in the shuttle; woof
2. bobbin, spool

Inflection

First declension of ἡ πήνη; τῆς πήνης (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ πήνη hē pḗnē	τὼ πήνᾱ tṑ pḗnā	αἱ πῆναι hai pênai
Genitive	τῆς πήνης tês pḗnēs	τοῖν πήναιν toîn pḗnain	τῶν πηνῶν tôn pēnôn
Dative	τῇ πήνῃ têi pḗnēi	τοῖν πήναιν toîn pḗnain	ταῖς πήναις taîs pḗnais
Accusative	τὴν πήνην tḕn pḗnēn	τὼ πήνᾱ tṑ pḗnā	τᾱ̀ς πήνᾱς tā̀s pḗnās
Vocative	πήνη pḗnē	πήνᾱ pḗnā	πῆναι pênai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• πηνίζομαι (pēnízomai)
• πηνίον (pēníon)
• πηνῖτις (pēnîtis)

 

Related terms

• πῆνος (pênos)

References

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