ποταμός

Uncertain, though most theories imply a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *peth₂- (“to spread out; to fly”) by relating the term to reflexes as such:^[1]

• πῑ́πτω (pī́ptō, “to fall”), thus a "waterfall" > "river that sweeps things away",
• πετᾰ́ννῡμῐ (petắnnūmĭ, “to spread out”) and Proto-Germanic *faþmaz (“embrace”), thus an "extension of water",
• πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”), particularly the third-person singular aorist middle indicative form ἔπτᾰτο (éptăto) which is close in form, thus a "flying stream of water".

Other theories relate the term to πόντος (póntos, “sea”) < Proto-Indo-European *pónteh₁s (“path, bridge”), (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) or to Proto-Indo-European *kweth₂- (“to bubble, foam”).^[2]

ποτᾰμός • (potămós) m (genitive ποτᾰμοῦ); second declension

1. river, stream
2. canal

• ῐ̔πποπότᾰμος (hĭppopótămos)
• μεσοποτάμιος (mesopotámios)

• “ποταμός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ποταμός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ποταμός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ποταμός 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
• ποταμός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “ποταμός”, in Valerius Harpocration (edition, 1853), Wilhelm Dindorf, editor, Harpocrationis Lexicon in decem oratores Atticos, Oxford: Wilhelm Dindorf
• “ποταμός”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G4215 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• ποταμός 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^[2], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • river idem, page 718.
  • stream idem, page 824.
• Watkins, Calvert, ed., The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000
• ποταμός, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

From Ancient Greek ποταμός (potamós).

ποταμός • (potamós) m (plural ποταμοί)

1. alternative form of ποτάμι (potámi) (river)

• παραπόταμος (parapótamos)

• ποταμός on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el