πυραμίς

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Perhaps from Ancient Greek πῡραμός (pūramós) +‎ -ῐ́ς (-ĭ́s), from πῡρός (pūrós, “wheat”) + ἀμάω (amáō, “to reap”), or from Egyptian pr-m-ws (“height of a pyramid”), from pr (“(one that) comes forth”) + m (“from”) + ws (“height^?”).

If the "cake" sense of the word is primary and was later applied to the Egyptian monuments from their resemblance in shape, then the Greek etymology is probable; however, the shape of the cake is unknown, and the "monument" sense is attested a century earlier than the "cake" sense, so the Greek derivation is problematic.^[1]

On the other hand, the Egyptian derivation is also problematic in that there is a gap of 1100 years between the attestation of pr-m-ws and that of πυραμίς. It is also possible that the "monument" sense and the "cake" sense were originally etymologically distinct but came to be perceived as identical due to folk etymology.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pyː.ra.mís/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /py.raˈmis/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /py.raˈmis/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /py.raˈmis/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /pi.raˈmis/

Noun

πῡρᾰμῐ́ς • (pūrămĭ́s) f (genitive πῡρᾰμῐ́δος); third declension

pyramid
a type of cake

Declension

Third declension of ἡ πῡρᾰμῐ́ς; τῆς πῡρᾰμῐ́δος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ πῡρᾰμῐ́ς hē pūrămĭ́s	τὼ πῡρᾰμῐ́δε tṑ pūrămĭ́de	αἱ πῡρᾰμῐ́δες hai pūrămĭ́des
Genitive	τῆς πῡρᾰμῐ́δος tês pūrămĭ́dos	τοῖν πῡρᾰμῐ́δοιν toîn pūrămĭ́doin	τῶν πῡρᾰμῐ́δων tôn pūrămĭ́dōn
Dative	τῇ πῡρᾰμῐ́δῐ tēî pūrămĭ́dĭ	τοῖν πῡρᾰμῐ́δοιν toîn pūrămĭ́doin	ταῖς πῡρᾰμῐ́σῐ / πῡρᾰμῐ́σῐν taîs pūrămĭ́sĭ(n)
Accusative	τὴν πῡρᾰμῐ́δᾰ tḕn pūrămĭ́dă	τὼ πῡρᾰμῐ́δε tṑ pūrămĭ́de	τᾱ̀ς πῡρᾰμῐ́δᾰς tā̀s pūrămĭ́dăs
Vocative	πῡρᾰμῐ́ pūrămĭ́	πῡρᾰμῐ́δε pūrămĭ́de	πῡρᾰμῐ́δες pūrămĭ́des
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 -δς (-ds).

Descendants

Greek: πυραμίδα (pyramída)
→ Latin: pȳramis (see there for further descendants)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “πῡραμίς, -ίδος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1261