ῥάφανος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• ῥαφάνη (rhaphánē), ῥέφανος (rhéphanos)

Etymology

The formation is similar to other plant names, such as λάχανον (lákhanon), πήγανον (pḗganon) and πύανος (púanos). Since the word is widespread only in Europe, and since it has variant forms, it cannot be an inherited word from Indo-European, but must have been borrowed instead, or otherwise belong to a substrate. Latin rāpum (“turnip”), Old High German ruoba (“turnip, rape”) and Lithuanian rope (“turnip”) point to a pre-form *rāp-; beside this we find Old High German raba and Proto-Slavic *rěpa (“turnip”), which point to *rēp-. In Greek we find also ῥάπυς (rhápus) and ῥάφυς (rháphus, “turnip”). Since the variation "π/φ" and the suffix "-αν-" are evidently Pre-Greek features, the word may originally be of substrate stock; thence the European cognates cited above were borrowed.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /r̥á.pʰa.nos/ → /ˈra.ɸa.nos/ → /ˈra.fa.nos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /r̥á.pʰa.nos/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈra.pʰa.nos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈra.ɸa.nos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈra.fa.nos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈra.fa.nos/

Noun

ῥάφᾰνος • (rháphanos) f (genitive ῥαφᾰ́νου); second declension

1. cabbage (Brassica cretica)

Inflection

Second declension of ἡ ῥάφᾰνος; τῆς ῥαφᾰ́νου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ῥάφᾰνος hē rháphanos	τὼ ῥαφᾰ́νω tṑ rhaphánō	αἱ ῥάφᾰνοι hai rháphanoi
Genitive	τῆς ῥαφᾰ́νου tês rhaphánou	τοῖν ῥαφᾰ́νοιν toîn rhaphánoin	τῶν ῥαφᾰ́νων tôn rhaphánōn
Dative	τῇ ῥαφᾰ́νῳ têi rhaphánōi	τοῖν ῥαφᾰ́νοιν toîn rhaphánoin	ταῖς ῥαφᾰ́νοις taîs rhaphánois
Accusative	τὴν ῥάφᾰνον tḕn rháphanon	τὼ ῥαφᾰ́νω tṑ rhaphánō	τᾱ̀ς ῥαφᾰ́νους tā̀s rhaphánous
Vocative	ῥάφᾰνε rháphane	ῥαφᾰ́νω rhaphánō	ῥάφᾰνοι rháphanoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• ῥαφανέλαιον (rhaphanélaion)
• ῥαφανηδόν (rhaphanēdón)
• ῥαφάνινος (rhapháninos)
• ῥαφάνιον (rhaphánion)
• ῥαφανίς (rhaphanís)
• ῥαφανῖτις (rhaphanîtis)
• ῥαφανουρός (rhaphanourós)
• χαμαιράφανος (khamairáphanos)

 

Descendants

• → Latin: raphanus (see there for further descendants)
• Translingual: Raphanus

Further reading

• “ῥάφανος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ῥάφανος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN