[B-Greek] Etymology of QEOPNEUSTOS in 2 Timothy 3:16
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Tue Jul 28 23:16:43 EDT 2009
On Jul 28, 2009, at 10:24 PM, Leonard Jayawardena wrote:
>
>
> Thank you to all three of you for the replies.
>
> What I am really looking for is not the semantic aspect of the
> origin of QEOPNEUSTOS--now that some views have been expressed on
> this I, too, will give my view in another post--rather the
> morphological process whereby QEO-PNEU-STOS is derived from QEOS and
> PNEW. Was I correct in using the word "etymology" for what I wanted?
> Specifically I wish to know the following:
I wondered at the outset whether this wasn't what you really wanted to
find out., rather than etymology.
>
> (1) How does the sigma of QEOS come to be dropped?
The -S- is a nominative ending, not part of the word stem; QEO- is the
stem.
> (2) How does PNEW become PNEU?
The root of this verb is PNEf/PNEU ("f" representing digamma, the
archaic consonantal "w", while U is the vocalic form); PNEf- will be
used with a follwoing consonant, "f" with a following vowel -- but the
digamma evanesced in very early Greek history.
> (3) Why is a sigma inserted between PNEU and the TOS ending?
-TO- is a suffix used with verbal stems to form verbal adjectives in
TOS/ON; I think (but am not sure) that the --S- is a euphonic
consonant to facilitate pronunciation.
Of course, knowing this does not provide any particular insight into
the usage of the word.
If you're really interested in all this, there's a great deal to
learn; the whole topic of Greek phonology (Smyth, Part I) and then the
whole business of word-formation (Smyth, Part III). You really ought
to own your own hardback copy of Smyth -- there's scarcely any more
valuable reference work for ancient Greek grammar that's really handy;
but you can consult the online version at Perseus, however awkward it
may be:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0007
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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