σμύρις

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

σμίρις (smíris)

Etymology

A Semitic borrowing, whence also comes Egyptian jsmr (“emery”), later smr (“emery”).[1] Cognate to Hebrew שָׁמִיר (šāmī́r, “emery, corund”), Aramaic שָׁמִירָא (šāmīrā) / ܫܡܝܪܐ (šāmīrā), Arabic سَامُور (sāmūr, “corundum”), possibly stemming from or at least related to Akkadian 𒉌𒌓𒌑 (^NA₄U₂ /⁠šammu⁠/, “emery, corund, stone used to cut hard precious gems, entitled the king of the stones for its mastery over all other stones”, literally “herb-stone, stone-medicine”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /zmý.ris/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈzmy.ris/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈzmy.ris/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈzmy.ris/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈzmi.ris/

Noun

σμύρῐς • (smúris) f (genitive σμύρῐδος); third declension

emery-powder, used by lapidaries

Declension

Third declension of ἡ σμῠ́ρῐς; τῆς σμῠ́ρῐδος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ σμῠ́ρῐς hē smúris	τὼ σμῠ́ρῐδε tṑ smúride	αἱ σμῠ́ρῐδες hai smúrides
Genitive	τῆς σμῠ́ρῐδος tês smúridos	τοῖν σμῠρῐ́δοιν toîn smurídoin	τῶν σμῠρῐ́δων tôn smurídōn
Dative	τῇ σμῠ́ρῐδῐ têi smúridi	τοῖν σμῠρῐ́δοιν toîn smurídoin	ταῖς σμῠ́ρῐσῐ / σμῠ́ρῐσῐν taîs smúrisi(n)
Accusative	τὴν σμῠ́ρῐδᾰ tḕn smúrida	τὼ σμῠ́ρῐδε tṑ smúride	τᾱ̀ς σμῠ́ρῐδᾰς tā̀s smúridas
Vocative	σμῠ́ρῐς smúris	σμῠ́ρῐδε smúride	σμῠ́ρῐδες smúrides
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Nominative singular -ς (-s) arose by reduction of the original cluster *-ds.

Derived terms

σμιριεῖα (smirieîa)
σμιρίτης (smirítēs)

Descendants

→ Latin: smyris
→ Classical Syriac: ܣܡܝܪܝܣ (*smiris)

References

“σμύρις”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
σμύρις in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
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

But the meaning “emery” has been contested on archaeological grounds by Harris, John Raymond (1961) Lexicographical Studies in Ancient Egyptian Minerals (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut für Orientforschung; 54) (in German), Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, page 16

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[1] But the meaning “emery” has been contested on archaeological grounds by Harris, John Raymond (1961) Lexicographical Studies in Ancient Egyptian Minerals (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut für Orientforschung; 54) (in German), Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, page 16