ἶρις

See also: ίρις and Ἶρις

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ἔρῐς (érĭs) — Attic
ϝῖρῐς (wîrĭs) — Doric^[1]

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek ϝῖρῐς (wîrĭs)

Ancient Greek ἶρῐς

From earlier ϝῖρῐς (wîrĭs); further origin uncertain. The traditional etymology, from Proto-Indo-European *wih₁-r- (“twist; thread; cord; wire”) (compare English wire, Swedish vira (“to twist”), Welsh gŵyr (“bent”)), from *weyh₁- (“to turn, twist, weave, plait”), is suspicious on account of the irregular variation between ⟨ε⟩ and ⟨ι⟩, as well as the suffix -ῐς (-ĭs), -ῐδος (-ĭdos). Furthermore, even the derivation of ϝῖρ- (wîr-) seems phonetically improbable, given the modern reconstruction of the root as *weh₁-y-. Thus, Furnée and Beekes argue for Pre-Greek origin.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /îː.ris/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ris/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ris/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ris/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈi.ris/

Noun

ἶρῐς • (îrĭs) f (genitive ῑ̓́ρῐδος); third declension

rainbow
halo
various species of the genus Iris

Declension

Third declension of ἡ ἶρῐς; τῆς ῑ̓́ρῐδος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ἶρῐς hē îrĭs	τὼ ῑ̓́ρῐδε tṑ ī́rĭde	αἱ ῑ̓́ρῐδες hai ī́rĭdes
Genitive	τῆς ῑ̓́ρῐδος tês ī́rĭdos	τοῖν ῑ̓ρῐ́δοιν toîn īrĭ́doin	τῶν ῑ̓ρῐ́δων tôn īrĭ́dōn
Dative	τῇ ῑ̓́ρῐδῐ tēî ī́rĭdĭ	τοῖν ῑ̓ρῐ́δοιν toîn īrĭ́doin	ταῖς ῑ̓́ρῐσῐ / ῑ̓́ρῐσῐν taîs ī́rĭsĭ(n)
Accusative	τὴν ἶρῐν / ῑ̓́ρῐδᾰ tḕn îrĭn / ī́rĭdă	τὼ ῑ̓́ρῐδε tṑ ī́rĭde	τᾱ̀ς ῑ̓́ρῐδᾰς tā̀s ī́rĭdăs
Vocative	ἶρῐ îrĭ	ῑ̓́ρῐδε ī́rĭde	ῑ̓́ρῐδες ī́rĭdes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Nominative singular -ς (-s) arose by reduction of the original cluster -δς (-ds).

Derived terms

ῑ̓́ρῐνος (ī́rĭnos)
Ἶρῐς (Îrĭs)

References

^ Laura Massetti (2016), “Two Lovely Names: on Κύπρις and Ἶρις”, in Münchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft‎^[1], page 50
^ Furnée, Edzard Johan (1972), Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen (Janua linguarum. Series practica; 150) (in German), The Hague and Paris: Mouton, page 356
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “ἶρις, -ιδος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 598
^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), “ἶρις, -ιδος [îris, -idos]”, in Stefan Norbruis, editor, Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 48