φύς

Substantivization/nominalization of the participle φῡ́ς (phū́s).

φῡ́ς • (phū́s) m (feminine φῦσᾰ, neuter φῠ́ν); first/third declension

1. second aorist active masculine participle of φῠ́ω (phúō): "(he) has sprung forth/been brought forth, (he) has been begotten, (he) has been born"

φῡ́ς • (phū́s) m (genitive φύντος); third declension

1. (literally) he who has sprung forth/been brought forth, he who has been begotten, he who has been born
2. (metonymically, generally with the definite article present): son, (male) child, (male) descendant

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The apparent IE root of the Ancient Greek verb φῠ́ω (phúō), *bʰuh₂-, seems to have originally had the intransitive meanings "to appear/spring forth", "to grow/wax", "to become". Despite this, by the classical period φῠ́ω (phúō) assumed, in the present tense, both the transitive meanings "to bring forth" ("to produce", "to beget", "to engender"), and the intransitive meanings "to arise", "to emerge", "to spring up", "to grow". Often, Greek verbs with both transitive and intransitive meanings developed two aorist tenses: a first aorist (aorist 1) to assume the transitive meanings, and a second aorist (aorist 2) to assume the intransitive. Classical Greek second aorist tenses ending in -ην (e.g. βάινω/ἒβην), -ων (e.g. βιόω /ἐβίων), and -υν (e.g. δύομαι /ἒδυν) are generally intransitive. Accordingly, in the case of φῠ́ω (phúō), a second aorist tense (second aorist ἔφῡν) arose to assume those intransitive meanings in the historical context. While the basic meanings of ἔφῡσᾰ (éphūsa), the first aorist tense of φῠ́ω (phúō), are identical with the transitive meanings of the present tense ("to bring forth", "to produce", "to cause to arise/appear", "to beget"), the basic meanings of second aorist ἔφῡν (éphūn) are more in line with the intransitive meanings of φῠ́ω and of the presumed IE root, *bʰuh₂-. The instant participle, φῡ́ς, is the second aorist active masculine participle of the verb φῠ́ω, and so has essentially intransitive meanings in the active voice.

In the specific case of the substantivized aorist masculine participle, which clearly refers to a (male) person or persons, the essentially intransitive meaning of the second aorist took on meanings both markedly passive and more specific to the human condition ("to be begotten", "to be born"). Therefore, with respect to verb φῠ́ω (phúō), the second aorist masculine participle φῡ́ς (phū́s) can drastically differ in meaning from the first aorist masculine participle φῡ́σᾱς (phū́sās), and that, with respect to the basic meaning of verb φῠ́ω (phúō), the (first aorist) active participle φῡ́σᾱς (phū́sās) can substantively represent the agent noun "father", and φῡ́ς (phū́s), in like manner an active participle, can substantively represent the result noun "son".

• φῡ́σᾱς (phū́sās, “father/forefather/ancestor”)
• φῡ́σαντες (phū́santes, “fathers/forefathers/parents”)

• “φύς”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers