γρύψ

Uncertain. Commonly linked to γρυπός (grupós, “curved”), which is from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, twist, bend, wind”), related to Old English crumb, crump (“bent, crooked”), Old High German krump.

Beekes and Klein dismiss an Indo-European origin and instead suggest Pre-Greek; possibly borrowed via Hittite or some other Anatolian medium from a Semitic word related to Akkadian 𒅗𒆕𒁍 (karūbu) and Hebrew כרוב (kerúv), in which case a doublet of χερούβ (kheroúb).

γρῡ́ψ • (grū́ps) m (genitive γρῡπός); third declension

1. griffin
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.116, (compare Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 395)

• Greek: γρύπας (grýpas)
• → Latin: grȳps (see there for further descendants)
• → Russian: грифо́н (grifón)

• “γρύψ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “γρύψ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• γρύψ in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• γρύψ in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • griffin idem, page 373.
  • gryphon idem, page 376.
• 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
• Klein, Dr. Ernest, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language