ἀδελφή

See also: ἀδελφῇ and αδελφή

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ἀδελφεά (adelpheá) — Doric
ἀδελφειή (adelpheiḗ) — Epic
ἀδελφεή (adelpheḗ) — Ionic

Etymology

Feminine form of ἀδελφός (adelphós, “brother”).^[1] Displaced the reflex of Proto-Indo-European *swésōr (“sister”), still seen in ἔορ (éor, “daughter of a cousin”), a word found in Hesychius' lexicon.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /a.del.pʰɛ̌ː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /a.delˈpʰe̝/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /a.ðelˈɸi/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /a.ðelˈfi/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /a.ðelˈfi/

Noun

ἀδελφή • (adelphḗ) f (genitive ἀδελφῆς); first declension

sister
some other female relation, such as wife or cousin

Inflection

First declension of ἡ ᾰ̓δελφή; τῆς ᾰ̓δελφῆς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ᾰ̓δελφή hē ădelphḗ	τὼ ᾰ̓δελφᾱ́ tṑ ădelphā́	αἱ ᾰ̓δελφαί hai ădelphaí
Genitive	τῆς ᾰ̓δελφῆς tês ădelphês	τοῖν ᾰ̓δελφαῖν toîn ădelphaîn	τῶν ᾰ̓δελφῶν tôn ădelphôn
Dative	τῇ ᾰ̓δελφῇ tēî ădelphēî	τοῖν ᾰ̓δελφαῖν toîn ădelphaîn	ταῖς ᾰ̓δελφαῖς taîs ădelphaîs
Accusative	τὴν ᾰ̓δελφήν tḕn ădelphḗn	τὼ ᾰ̓δελφᾱ́ tṑ ădelphā́	τᾱ̀ς ᾰ̓δελφᾱ́ς tā̀s ădelphā́s
Vocative	ᾰ̓δελφή ădelphḗ	ᾰ̓δελφᾱ́ ădelphā́	ᾰ̓δελφαί ădelphaí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Coordinate terms

ἀδελφός (adelphós, “brother”)

Descendants

Greek: αδελφή (adelfí) or αδερφή (aderfí)
Mariupol Greek: адъэрфи́ (aðerfí)
→ Translingual: Adelpha

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), “ἀδελφεός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 20: “VAR > ἀδελφεή 'sister'”

“ἀδελφή”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ἀδελφή”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
ἀδελφή 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
ἀδελφή in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2026)
G79 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.
- sister idem, page 779.
ἀδελφή, 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), “ἀδελφεός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 20: “VAR > ἀδελφεή 'sister'”

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