βυθός

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

βυσσός (bussós)

Etymology

Traditionally considered a metathesis from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewb- (“hazy, deep”), with cognates including Old Church Slavonic дъно (dŭno), Old English dēop (English deep) and Albanian det (from Proto-Albanian *deubeta). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?) Unrelated to βᾰθῠ́ς (băthŭ́s, “deep, thick, profound”) and βένθος (bénthos, “sea depth”), despite similar semantics and superficially similar phonetics.

Alternately, cognate to Sanskrit गाध (gādha, “bottom, ford, shallows, standing-ground in water”).

Also compare the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- with meaning related to swelling, as in a deepening.

However, Beekes rejects Indo-European origin, based on phonetic difficulties with theories like the above, as well as θ/σσ variation displayed by the word's variant βυσσός (bussós) which is bolstered by the latter's substrate-like formation βυσσαλ- (bussal-), and assigns it to Pre-Greek instead.^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /by.tʰós/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /byˈtʰos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /βyˈθos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /vyˈθos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /viˈθos/

Noun

βῠθός • (bŭthós) m (genitive βῠθοῦ); second declension

depth
depth of the sea, deep water

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ βῠθός; τοῦ βῠθοῦ (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ βῠθός ho bŭthós	τὼ βῠθώ tṑ bŭthṓ	οἱ βῠθοί hoi bŭthoí
Genitive	τοῦ βῠθοῦ toû bŭthoû	τοῖν βῠθοῖν toîn bŭthoîn	τῶν βῠθῶν tôn bŭthôn
Dative	τῷ βῠθῷ tôi bŭthôi	τοῖν βῠθοῖν toîn bŭthoîn	τοῖς βῠθοῖς toîs bŭthoîs
Accusative	τὸν βῠθόν tòn bŭthón	τὼ βῠθώ tṑ bŭthṓ	τοὺς βῠθούς toùs bŭthoús
Vocative	βῠθέ bŭthé	βῠθώ bŭthṓ	βῠθοί bŭthoí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ἄβυσσος (ábussos)

Descendants

Greek: βυθός (vythós)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “βυθός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 247

Greek

Etymology

Inherited from Ancient Greek βυθός (buthós).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /viˈθos/

Noun

βυθός • (vythós) m (plural βυθοί)

seabed, riverbed, bottom, ground

Declension

Declension of **βυθός**
	singular	plural
nominative	βυθός (vythós)	βυθοί (vythoí)
genitive	βυθού (vythoú)	βυθών (vythón)
accusative	βυθό (vythó)	βυθούς (vythoús)
vocative	βυθέ (vythé)	βυθοί (vythoí)

βυθός

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Inflection

Derived terms

Descendants

References

Further reading

Greek

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Declension

Further reading

Wikious

Boobota

Sagapedia