πῦρ

See also: πυρ

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *pāwər, from Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥.^[1] The noun was changed to a pure R-stem noun; if it retained the oblique N-stem forms of its ancestor, its oblique base would have been **πῠν- (**pŭn-).

Cognates include Old English fȳr (English fire), Old Armenian հուր (hur), Hittite 𒉺𒄴𒄯 (pa-aḫ-ḫur /⁠paḫḫur⁠/), Tocharian A por, and Tocharian B puwar. Compare Mycenaean Greek 𐀢𐀏𐀺 (pu-ka-wo /⁠pur-kawos⁠/, “fire-kindler”), Etruscan 𐌅𐌄𐌓𐌔𐌄 (verse).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pŷːr/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpyr/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈpyr/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈpyr/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpir/

Noun

πῦρ • (pûr) n (genitive πῠρός); third declension

a fire
1. a funerary fire
2. a sacrificial fire
lightning
a fever

Usage notes

Not used in the plural, which lexicalised as πῠρᾰ́ (pŭrắ, “watchfires”) and reanalysed as being in the second-declension; distinguish this from the first-declension noun πῠρᾱ́ (pŭrā́, “funeral pyre”).

Declension

Third declension of τὸ πῦρ; τοῦ πῠρός (Attic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	τὸ πῦρ tò pûr
Genitive	τοῦ πῠρός toû pŭrós
Dative	τῷ πῠρῐ́ tōî pŭrĭ́
Accusative	τὸ πῦρ tò pûr
Vocative	πῦρ pûr
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Third declension of πῦρ; πῠρός (Epic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	πῦρ pûr
Genitive	πῠρός pŭrós
Dative	πῠρῐ́ pŭrĭ́
Accusative	πῦρ pûr
Vocative	πῦρ pûr
Notes:	Dialects other than Attic are not well attested. Some forms may be based on conjecture. Use with caution.

Derived terms

ἐμπύριος (empúrios)
ζᾰ́πῠρος (zắpŭros)
ἰσόπῠρον (isópŭron)
κεβλήπῠρῐς (keblḗpŭrĭs)
πῠρᾰ́ (pŭrắ)
πῠρᾱ́ (pŭrā́)
πυράζω (purázō)
πυρακτέω (puraktéō)
πυραυγής (puraugḗs)
πύραυνος (púraunos)
πῠ́ρδᾰλον (pŭ́rdălon)
πυρία (puría)
Πυριλάμπης (Purilámpēs)
πυριφεγγής (puriphengḗs)
πυρίφλογος (puríphlogos)
πυριφόρος (puriphóros)
πυρκαϊά (purkaïá)
πυρόω (puróō)
πῠρρός (pŭrrhós)
πυρσίτης (pursítēs)
πῠρσός (pŭrsós)
πύρωμα (púrōma)
πύρωσις (púrōsis)
ὑπόπῠρος (hupópŭros)

Descendants

Greek: πυρ (pyr)
English: pyro-

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “πῦρ, πῠρός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 1260-1

“πῦρ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“πῦρ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“πῦρ”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
πῦρ 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
πῦρ in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“πῦρ”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G4442 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- blaze idem, page 82.
- conflagration idem, page 159.
- fire idem, page 322.
- flame idem, page 325.
πῦρ, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “πῦρ, πῠρός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 1260-1

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