σάπφειρος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From a West Semitic language such as Hebrew סַפִּיר (sappîr), originally from Assyrian Akkadian šipirtu (“lapis lazuli”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /sápʰ.pʰeː.ros/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈsap.pʰi.ros/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈsap.ɸi.ros/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈsap.fi.ros/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈsap.fi.ros/

Noun

σάπφειρος • (sáppheiros) f (genitive σαπφείρου); second declension

sapphire

Inflection

Second declension of ἡ σάπφειρος; τῆς σαπφείρου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ σάπφειρος hē sáppheiros	τὼ σαπφείρω tṑ sappheírō	αἱ σάπφειροι hai sáppheiroi
Genitive	τῆς σαπφείρου tês sappheírou	τοῖν σαπφείροιν toîn sappheíroin	τῶν σαπφείρων tôn sappheírōn
Dative	τῇ σαπφείρῳ tēî sappheírōi	τοῖν σαπφείροιν toîn sappheíroin	ταῖς σαπφείροις taîs sappheírois
Accusative	τὴν σάπφειρον tḕn sáppheiron	τὼ σαπφείρω tṑ sappheírō	τᾱ̀ς σαπφείρους tā̀s sappheírous
Vocative	σάπφειρε sáppheire	σαπφείρω sappheírō	σάπφειροι sáppheiroi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

σαπφείρινος (sappheírinos)
σαπφείριον (sappheírion)

Descendants

→ Afrikaans: saffier
→ Aragonese: zafir
→ Azerbaijani: sapfir
→ Basque: zafiro
→ Belarusian: сапфір (sapfir)
→ Bulgarian: сапфир (sapfir)
→ Catalan: safir
→ Chichewa: safiro
→ Czech: safír
→ Danish: safir
→ Dutch: saffier
→ English: sapphire
→ Esperanto: safiro
→ Estonian: safiir
→ Fijian: safairi
→ Finnish: safiiri
→ German: Saphir
→ Hausa: saffir
→ Hawaiian: sapeira
→ Hungarian: zafír
→ Icelandic: safír
→ Ido: safiro
→ Indonesian: safir
→ Irish: saifír
→ Japanese: サファイア (safaia)
→ Javanese: safir
→ Kazakh: сапфир (sapfir)
→ Korean: 사파이어 (sapaieo)
→ Latin: sapphirus, sappīrus (Classical Latin), sapphir, sappir
- French: saphir
  - → Romanian: safir n
  - → Turkish: safir
- Italian: zaffiro
  - → Greek: ζαφείρι (zafeíri)
- Spanish: zafiro
→ Latvian: safīrs
→ Lithuanian: safyras
→ Malagasy: safira
→ Maori: hapaira
→ Maltese: żaffir
→ Middle English: safir
→ Norwegian Bokmål: safir
→ Norwegian Nynorsk: safir
→ Old Georgian: საფირონი (sapironi), საპფირონი (saṗpironi)
- Georgian: საფირონი (sapironi)
→ Polish: szafir
→ Portuguese: safira f
→ Russian: сапфи́р (sapfír)
→ Rwanda-Rundi: safiro
→ Samoan: safaira
→ Shona: safiri
→ Slovak: zafír
→ Slovene: safir
→ Somali: safayr
→ Sotho: safire|
→ Sundanese: sapir
→ Swedish: safir
→ Tahitian: safaia
→ Tajik: сапфир (sapfir)
→ Tongan: safaili
→ Ukrainian: сапфір (sapfir)
→ Uzbek: sapfir
→ Vietnamese: xa-phia
→ Welsh: saffir
→ West Frisian: saffier
→ Xhosa: isafire
→ Yakut: сапфир (sapfir)
→ Zulu: isafire

References

Ayil, Ephraim S. (2024). "Chapter 7 ‮סַפִּיר‬ Sappīr—Lapis Lazuli". In Identifying the Stones of Classical Hebrew. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004678002_008