ἐμπίς

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Popular derivation from ἐμπίνω (empínō, “to drink (blood)”). Pokorny connects Proto-West Germanic *imbī (“bee”), deriving both from Proto-Indo-European *h₁empís (“gnat, biting insect”), though Kroonen rejects this comparison and Mallory and Adams call it "not universally accepted."

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /em.pís/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /emˈpis/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /emˈpis/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /emˈpis/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /emˈbis/

Noun

ἐμπῐ́ς • (empĭ́s) f (genitive ἐμπῐ́δος); third declension

mosquito, gnat
larva of the oestrus

Declension

Third declension of ἡ ἐμπῐ́ς; τῆς ἐμπῐ́δος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ἐμπῐ́ς hē empĭ́s	τὼ ἐμπῐ́δε tṑ empĭ́de	αἱ ἐμπῐ́δες hai empĭ́des
Genitive	τῆς ἐμπῐ́δος tês empĭ́dos	τοῖν ἐμπῐ́δοιν toîn empĭ́doin	τῶν ἐμπῐ́δων tôn empĭ́dōn
Dative	τῇ ἐμπῐ́δῐ têi empĭ́dĭ	τοῖν ἐμπῐ́δοιν toîn empĭ́doin	ταῖς ἐμπῐ́σῐ / ἐμπῐ́σῐν taîs empĭ́sĭ(n)
Accusative	τὴν ἐμπῐ́δᾰ tḕn empĭ́dă	τὼ ἐμπῐ́δε tṑ empĭ́de	τᾱ̀ς ἐμπῐ́δᾰς tā̀s empĭ́dăs
Vocative	ἐμπῐ́ς empĭ́s	ἐμπῐ́δε empĭ́de	ἐμπῐ́δες empĭ́des
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 *-ds.

Descendants

→ Translingual: Empis

References

Pokorny, Julius (1959) “311”, in Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 1, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 311
Mallory, J. P., Adams, D. Q., editors (1997), Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, London, Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, page 312