Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• νύμφα ‎(númpha) (Doric)

• (4th AD Koine) IPA^(key): /nýmɸi/

• (10th AD Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ný̃fi/

• (15th AD Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /nífi/

Noun

νύμφη • ‎(númphē) f ‎(genitive νύμφης); first declension

1. bride, young wife
2. young girl
3. daughter-in-law
4. nymph
5. spring, water
6. bee or wasp in pupa stage
7. male ant
8. clitoris

Inflection

Epic has vocative singular (probably Doric dialect): νύμφα ‎(númpha).

Descendants

• English: nymph, lymph (via Latin)
• French: nymphe
• Greek: νύμφη f ‎(nýmfi, “bride, nymph, pupa”), νύφη f ‎(nýfi, “bride”)
• Latin: lympha, nympha
• Russian: ни́мфа f ‎(nímfa)

References

• νύμφη in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• νύμφη in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• νύμφη in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «νύμφη» 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
• «νύμφη» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “G3565”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• «νύμφη» in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th-12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • bride idem, page 97.
  • elf idem, page 265.
  • fairy idem, page 302.
  • nymph idem, page 563.
  • Nymph idem, page 1018.
  • sylph idem, page 850.

Greek

Etymology

From Ancient Greek νύμφη ‎(númphē, “nýmfi”)

Noun

νύμφη • ‎(nýmfi) f ‎(plural νύμφες)

1. bride
2. (Greek mythology) nymph, undine, water sprite, water spirit
3. (zoology) nymph, larva
4. (zoology) pupa, chrysalis

Declension

Synonyms

• (bride): νύφη f ‎(nýfi)
• (chrysalis, pupa): χρυσαλλίδα f ‎(chrysallída)