Νεῖν
to swim
Translated by Nick Nicholas23 Sep 2009Vetting: high6 revisions
Translation
[Meaning] to dive/swim,1 and to spin a thread.2
Arrian [writes]: "all those who were the lightest, and armed the lightest, and were the most adept at swimming, he ordered to start swimming out on his signal."3
And elsewhere: "just as birds have been born to fly, and fish to swim, and deer to run, so they have no need of instruction."4
And Hesiod usednei=n , meaning to spin, in the [phrase] "and there a high-soaring spider spins threads". Some wrote "spins [nei= ] threads" with an eta [nh= ], as if it is truncated out of nh/qei ["he spins"]. But in this regard, analogy knows [the conjugation] nw=, nei=s, nei= [to be] original, from which nh/qw [is] derived; [as with] knw= , knh/qw ["scratch"], sw= , sh/qw ["sift"].5
Arrian [writes]: "all those who were the lightest, and armed the lightest, and were the most adept at swimming, he ordered to start swimming out on his signal."3
And elsewhere: "just as birds have been born to fly, and fish to swim, and deer to run, so they have no need of instruction."4
And Hesiod used
Greek original · Adler’s text
Νεῖν· κολυμβᾶν, καὶ τὸ νήθειν κρόκην. Ἀρριανός· ὅσοι κουφότατοι καὶ κουφότατα ὡπλισμένοι καὶ τοῦ νεῖν δαημονέστατοι, τούτους ἐκνήξασθαι κελεύει ἀπὸ συνθήματος. καὶ αὖθις· ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ ὄρνιθες ἵπτασθαι καὶ νεῖν ἰχθύες αἵ τε ἔλαφοι θεῖν, ἐπεὶ πεφύκασιν, οὐδὲν τοῦ διδαχθῆναι προσδέονται. τοῦ δὲ νεῖν, ἤτοι νήθειν, χρῆσις παρ' Ἡσιόδῳ ἐν τῷ, τῇ γάρ τοι νεῖ νήματ' ἀερσιπότητος ἀράχνης. τινὲς δὲ τὸ νεῖ νήματα διὰ τοῦ η ἔγραψαν, ὡς ἀποκοπὲν ἐκ τοῦ νήθει. πλὴν καὶ οὕτως ἡ ἀναλογία τὸ νῶ, νεῖς, νεῖ οἶδε πρωτότυπον· ἐξ οὗ παράγωγον τὸ νήθω· τὸ κνῶ, κνήθω, σῶ, σήθω.
Betacode
*nei=n: kolumba=n, kai\ to\ nh/qein kro/khn. *)arriano/s: o(/soi koufo/tatoi kai\ koufo/tata w(plisme/noi kai\ tou= nei=n dahmone/statoi, tou/tous e)knh/casqai keleu/ei a)po\ sunqh/matos. kai\ au)=qis: w(/sper ga\r oi( o)/rniqes i(/ptasqai kai\ nei=n i)xqu/es ai(/ te e)/lafoi qei=n, e)pei\ pefu/kasin, ou)de\n tou= didaxqh=nai prosde/ontai. tou= de\ nei=n, h)/toi nh/qein, xrh=sis par' *(hsio/dw| e)n tw=|, th=| ga/r toi nei= nh/mat' a)ersipo/thtos a)ra/xnhs. tine\s de\ to\ nei= nh/mata dia\ tou= h e)/grayan, w(s a)pokope\n e)k tou= nh/qei. plh\n kai\ ou(/tws h( a)nalogi/a to\ nw=, nei=s, nei= oi)=de prwto/tupon: e)c ou(= para/gwgon to\ nh/qw: to\ knw=, knh/qw, sw=, sh/qw.
Notes (5)
- 1LSJ s.v.
ne/w A; and see also nu 272, nu 292. ↩ - 2LSJ s.v.
ne/w B. ↩ - 3Arrian, Indica 24.5. ↩
- 4Julian, To Heraclius the Cynic 2 (Or.7, 206A). ↩
- 5Hesiod, Works and Days 777 (web address 1). The speculation is not otherwise recorded.
*nh/qw is indeed formed fromne/w as suggested. Philoxenos of Alexandria (first century BCE, see phi 394) promulgated a theory that the Greek vocabulary was derived from a core of monosyllabic verbs; see Dickey, 3.1.10 (p. 85), and cf. epsilon 1031. ↩
References
Eleanor Dickey, Ancient Greek Scholarship: A Guide to Finding, Reading, and Understanding Scholia, Commentaries, Lexica, and Grammatical Treatises, from Their Beginnings to the Byzantine Period. American Philological Association Classical Resource Series. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007
External resources
- Web address 1 perseus.tufts.edu
Linked from5 entries
- ν272Νευσούμενοιabout to swim, in order to swim[Meaning they who are] about to dive/swim. Xenophon [writes]: "stripping, taking [sc. only] our knives, naked in order to swim, we were trying to cross over."
- ν292Νεῖσθαιto swim[Meaning] to dive/swim.
- ν343Νῆσοςisland[sc. The word is formed] out of the [verb] nw= ['I swim'], [future] nh/sw; as if swimming in water. Or also, they say, as if from the bird [called] nh=ssa ['duck'], by similarity. From this [is derived] nhsi/ths…
- ν527ΝῶI heap up, I swim, I flow, I spinA verb, of which the[se] inflections are in use. [(A) The verb] nw=, [meaning] I pile up; out of which [comes] nh=sai, to pile up. Also nhdu/s ["stomach, womb"], [that] into which nourishment is piled up. [(B) The verb]…
- φ394ΦιλόξενοςPhiloxenus, PhiloxenosOf Alexandria. Grammarian. He was a sophist in Rome. [He wrote] On Monosyllabic Verbs; On the Critical Signs in the Iliad; On -mi Verbs; On Reduplication; On Metres; On the Syracusan Dialect; On Hellenism (6 books); On…
Neighbouring entries
Revision history6 revisions · last 31 Oct 2020
- tweaks — Catharine Roth
- cross-reference — Catharine Roth
- tweaked link — Catharine Roth
- Revised — David Whitehead
- expanded note, tweaked link — Catharine Roth
- more keywords; tweaks and cosmetics — David Whitehead
- Translated — Nick Nicholas