ξίφος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

  • σκῐ́φος (skíphos) Aeolic

Etymology

Already in Late Mycenaean Greek (Ta-716 from Pylos), attested in the dual 𐀥𐀯𐀟𐀁 (qi-si-pe-e, two swords) (mostly ideographically as 𐃉). Probably of non-Greek origin, likely borrowed from Egyptian zft (sword, knife).[1] If not, perhaps both are from an Old Semitic saïf or sêf,[2] or from a Libyan or "Sea Peoples" word.[3]

Pronunciation

 

Noun

ξῐ́φος (xíphos) n (genitive ξῐ́φεος or ξῐ́φους); third declension

  1. sword, the short, straight, double-edged sword of the Iron Age and Classical Antiquity.
    1. the sword-shaped bone of the cuttlefish
      1. swordfish
        • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Fragments 306
    2. corn-flag (Gladiolus italicus)
      Synonym: ξίφιον (xíphion)
      • 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 7.13.1

Inflection

References

  • ξίφος in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • ξίφος in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • ξίφος in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
  • ξίφος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
  • ξίφος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
  • ξίφος in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
  • ξίφος 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, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • A. Heubeck, 'Mykenisch *qi-si-po- = ξίφος', Minos 6 (1958), 114–116.
  1. Černý, Jaroslav (1976) Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN
  2. Johannes Dümichen, Historische Inschriften altägyptischer Denkmäler vol. 1, Leipzig (1867), 26-27.
  3. John Linton Myres, Who were the Greeks?, University of California Press, 1930, p. 590

Greek

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek ξίφος (xíphos, s-stem).

Noun

ξίφος (xífos) n

  1. sword

Synonyms

Derived terms

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