ῥομφαία

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Borrowed from Thracian, ultimately possibly from Proto-Indo-European *Hrewp- (“to break”), likely closely related to Albanian rrufé (“lightning”).[1] However the ending in -αία (-aía) is also found in many Greek terms such as κεραία (keraía), καμιναία (kaminaía), αὐλαία (aulaía). Formally closer to ῥομφεῖς (rhompheîs, “straps by which shoes are stitched”).[2]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /r̥om.pʰǎi̯.aː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /romˈpʰɛ.a/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /romˈɸɛ.a/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /romˈfe.a/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /romˈfe.a/

Noun

ῥομφαίᾱ • (rhomphaíā) f (genitive ῥομφαίᾱς); first declension

large, broad sword used by the Thracians

Inflection

First declension of ἡ ῥομφαίᾱ; τῆς ῥομφαίᾱς (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ῥομφαίᾱ hē rhomphaíā	τὼ ῥομφαίᾱ tṑ rhomphaíā	αἱ ῥομφαῖαι hai rhomphaîai
Genitive	τῆς ῥομφαίᾱς tês rhomphaíās	τοῖν ῥομφαίαιν toîn rhomphaíain	τῶν ῥομφαιῶν tôn rhomphaiôn
Dative	τῇ ῥομφαίᾳ têi rhomphaíāi	τοῖν ῥομφαίαιν toîn rhomphaíain	ταῖς ῥομφαίαις taîs rhomphaíais
Accusative	τὴν ῥομφαίᾱν tḕn rhomphaíān	τὼ ῥομφαίᾱ tṑ rhomphaíā	τᾱ̀ς ῥομφαίᾱς tā̀s rhomphaíās
Vocative	ῥομφαίᾱ rhomphaíā	ῥομφαίᾱ rhomphaíā	ῥομφαῖαι rhomphaîai
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

→ Latin: rhomphaea

References

Duridanov, Ivan Vasiliev (1985) “romphaia”, in Die Sprache der Thraker [The Language of the Thracians] (Bulgarische Sammlung; 5) (in German), Hieronymus Verlag, →ISBN, page 13
Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ῥομφαία”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1291