βίος

See also: βιος, βιός, bios, BIOS, and bíos

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Either from Proto-Hellenic *gʷīwos, from *gʷih₃wós (“alive”), and cognate with Old English cwic (English quick), Latin vīvus, and Old Church Slavonic живъ (živŭ); or a syncope of βίοτος (bíotos).

In either case, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷeyh₃- (“to live”), whence also ζωός (zōós) and ζῷον (zôion), and cognate with Old Church Slavonic жити (žiti), Sanskrit जीवति (jīvati), Latin vīvō, Old Armenian կեամ (keam).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /bí.os/ → /ˈβi.os/ → /ˈvi.os/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /bí.os/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈbi.os/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈβi.os/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈvi.os/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈvi.os/

Noun

βῐ́ος • (bíos) m (genitive βῐ́ου); second declension (Epic, Attic, Ionic, Koine)

1. life (often with a positive connotation: the good life)

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ βῐ́ος; τοῦ βῐ́ου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ βῐ́ος ho bíos	τὼ βῐ́ω tṑ bíō	οἱ βῐ́οι hoi bíoi
Genitive	τοῦ βῐ́ου toû bíou	τοῖν βῐ́οιν toîn bíoin	τῶν βῐ́ων tôn bíōn
Dative	τῷ βῐ́ῳ tôi bíōi	τοῖν βῐ́οιν toîn bíoin	τοῖς βῐ́οις toîs bíois
Accusative	τὸν βῐ́ον tòn bíon	τὼ βῐ́ω tṑ bíō	τοὺς βῐ́ους toùs bíous
Vocative	βῐ́ε bíe	βῐ́ω bíō	βῐ́οι bíoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• Ἀναξίβια (Anaxíbia)
• Ἀναξίβιος (Anaxíbios)
• βιόω (bióō)
• βιωτικός (biōtikós)
• ἐναντίβιος (enantíbios)
• Ζηνόβιος (Zēnóbios)
• κοινόβιος (koinóbios)
• Πολύβιος (Polúbios)
• Ταλθύβιος (Talthúbios)

 

Descendants

• → English: bio-
• Greek: βίος (víos)
• Coptic: ⲃⲓⲟⲥ (bios)
• Norwegian Bokmål: bio-

Further reading

• “βίος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “βίος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “βίος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• βίος 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
• βίος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• βίος in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• “βίος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G979 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • being idem, page 72.
  • career idem, page 113.
  • course idem, page 178.
  • existence idem, page 292.
  • life idem, page 489.
  • livelihood idem, page 495.
  • living idem, page 496.
  • maintenance idem, page 508.
  • subsistence idem, page 832.
  • support idem, page 841.
  • sustenance idem, page 846.
  • tenor idem, page 862.

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek βίος (bíos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvi.os/ compare to βιος (vios)
• Hyphenation: βί‧ος

Noun

βίος • (víos) m (plural βίοι)

1. life
2. lifespan
3. quality of life
4. biography, life story

Declension

Declension of βίος

	singular	plural
nominative	βίος (víos)	βίοι (víoi)
genitive	βίου (víou)	βίων (víon)
accusative	βίο (vío)	βίους (víous)
vocative	βίε (víe)	βίοι (víoi)

Synonyms

• (life): ζωή n (zoḯ)

Further reading

• βίος, in Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής [Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek], Triantafyllidis Foundation, 1998 at the Centre for the Greek language
• βίος on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el