ῥίον

See also: Ῥίον

Ancient Greek

Etymology

The word is isolated within Hellenic and has no certain etymology. If it originally had an initial "ϝ-", it would recall βρία (bría, “town”) and perhaps also Tocharian B riye (“town”). The connections with Proto-Germanic *risiz (“giant”), Latin verrūca (“wart”), Proto-Slavic *vьrxъ (“top, peak”) and Sanskrit वर्ष्मन् (varṣman, “height, top”) are no better. As an alternative to all these problematic suggestions, Beekes considers the possibility that the word is of Pre-Greek origin.

Attested in Mycenaean Greek as 𐀪𐀍 (ri-jo).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /r̥í.on/ → /ˈri.on/ → /ˈri.on/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /r̥í.on/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈri.on/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈri.on/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈri.on/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈri.on/

Noun

ῥίον • (rhíon) n (genitive ῥίου); second declension

1. peak, summit, any jutting part of a mountain
2. headland
3. bay formed by a foreland

Inflection

Second declension of τὸ ῥῐ́ον; τοῦ ῥῐ́ου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ ῥῐ́ον tò rhĭ́on	τὼ ῥῐ́ω tṑ rhĭ́ō	τᾰ̀ ῥῐ́ᾰ tằ rhĭ́ă
Genitive	τοῦ ῥῐ́ου toû rhĭ́ou	τοῖν ῥῐ́οιν toîn rhĭ́oin	τῶν ῥῐ́ων tôn rhĭ́ōn
Dative	τῷ ῥῐ́ῳ tôi rhĭ́ōi	τοῖν ῥῐ́οιν toîn rhĭ́oin	τοῖς ῥῐ́οις toîs rhĭ́ois
Accusative	τὸ ῥῐ́ον tò rhĭ́on	τὼ ῥῐ́ω tṑ rhĭ́ō	τᾰ̀ ῥῐ́ᾰ tằ rhĭ́ă
Vocative	ῥῐ́ον rhĭ́on	ῥῐ́ω rhĭ́ō	ῥῐ́ᾰ rhĭ́ă
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• Ῥίον (Rhíon)

Further reading

• “ῥίον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ῥίον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ῥίον”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1287