κνέφας

Often connected with Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšápš from Proto-Indo-European *kʷséps (“night”). Compare Avestan 𐬑𐬴𐬀𐬞𐬀𐬥 (xṣ̌apan), Old Persian 𐎧𐏁𐎱𐎺 (x-š-p-v /⁠xšap-⁠/), Sanskrit क्षप् (kṣáp) and Hittite 𒅖𒉺𒀭𒍝 (ispanza). Others have connected κρύπτω (krúptō), Latin creper (“dusky, dark”), crepusculum, and Albanian ngrys (“to darken”).

For Beekes the word is “no doubt Pre-Greek”.

κνέφας • (knéphas) n (genitive κνέφους or κνέφᾰτος); ? declension (Epic, Attic, Koine, poetic)

1. darkness, often referring to evening dusk or night
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.194:

     εἰς ὅ κε νῆας ἐϋσσέλμους ἀφίκηται
     δύῃ τ’ ἠέλιος καὶ ἐπὶ κνέφας ἱερὸν ἔλθῃ

     eis hó ke nêas eüssélmous aphíkētai
     dúēi t’ ēélios kaì epì knéphas hieròn élthēi

     until [Hector] reaches the ships and the sun sinks and the holy darkness approaches

   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Eumenides 396:

     καίπερ ὑπὸ χθόνα / τάξιν ἔχουσα καὶ δυσήλιον κνέφας.

     kaíper hupò khthóna / táxin ékhousa kaì dusḗlion knéphas.

     • 1926 translation by Herbert Weir Smyth

       although I have my place under the earth and in sunless darkness

   • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 8.26.10
   1. (figuratively, of the mind)
      • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Eumenides 378:

        τοῖον [γὰρ] ἐπὶ κνέφας ἀνδρὶ μύσος πεπόταται

        toîon [gàr] epì knéphas andrì músos pepótatai

        • 1926 translation by Herbert Weir Smyth

          pollution hovers over the man in such darkness

In Homer, the word is only used in the nominative and accusative. The other inflected forms, which were used later, are irregular. The forms κνέφους (knéphous) and κνέφεῐ̈ (knépheï) belong to the neuter declension in -ος (-os), as if the nominative were *κνέφος (*knéphos), and the other two belong to the neuter declension in -ᾰ (-a) and the feminine first declension – κνέφᾰτος (knéphatos) and κνέφᾳ (knéphāi) – as if the nominative were *κνέφᾰ (*knépha) or *κνέφᾱ (*knéphā). Thus, they belong to the first and third declensions.

• κνέφας in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “κνέφας”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press