κλεμμύς

Ancient Greek

Etymology

The formation is similar to that of synonymous words χέλυς (khélus) and ἐμύς (emús). Originally considered a folk-etymological adaptation to κλέμμα (klémma) and κλέπτω (kléptō, “to conceal”), because turtles can hide their bodies under their shell. Furnée compares κρεμύς (kremús, “a kind of fish”) and χρέμυς (khrémus, “a sort of cod”); these variants confirm that the word is Pre-Greek.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /klem.mýs/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /klemˈmys/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /klemˈmys/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /klemˈmys/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /kleˈmis/

Noun

κλεμμῠ́ς • (klemmŭ́s) f (genitive κλεμμῠ́ος); third declension

tortoise
Synonym: χελώνη (khelṓnē)

Inflection

Third declension of ἡ κλεμμῠ́ς; τῆς κλεμμῠός (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ κλεμμῠ́ς hē klemmŭ́s	τὼ κλεμμῠ́ε tṑ klemmŭ́e	αἱ κλεμμῠ́ες hai klemmŭ́es
Genitive	τῆς κλεμμῠός tês klemmŭós	τοῖν κλεμμῠοῖν toîn klemmŭoîn	τῶν κλεμμῠῶν tôn klemmŭôn
Dative	τῇ κλεμμῠῐ̈́ tēî klemmŭĭ̈́	τοῖν κλεμμῠοῖν toîn klemmŭoîn	ταῖς κλεμμῠσῐ́ / κλεμμῠσῐ́ν taîs klemmŭsĭ́(n)
Accusative	τὴν κλεμμῠ́ν tḕn klemmŭ́n	τὼ κλεμμῠ́ε tṑ klemmŭ́e	τᾱ̀ς κλεμμῦς / κλεμμῠ́ᾰς tā̀s klemmûs / klemmŭ́ăs
Vocative	κλεμμῠ́ klemmŭ́	κλεμμῠ́ε klemmŭ́e	κλεμμῠ́ες klemmŭ́es
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Inflection

Further reading