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 Pre-Greek origin.

Pronunciation
 

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

Further reading

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)
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