σεῖφα

Ancient Greek

Etymology

According to Furnée, it is a shortened form of ψέφας (pséphas, “darkness, gloom”) and thus from Pre-Greek.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /sêː.pʰa/ → /ˈsi.ɸa/ → /ˈsi.fa/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /sêː.pʰa/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.pʰa/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.ɸa/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.fa/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈsi.fa/

Noun

σεῖφα • (seîpha)

1. (hapax) Hesychius gives the definition as: σκοτία (skotía, “darkness, gloom”), as they say in Crete.

References

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