ἀτμός

See also: ατμός

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From *ἀετμός (*aetmós) (only attested in an inflected gloss ἀετμόν (aetmón, “wind”)), of uncertain origin. Traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”), and connected with ἄημι (áēmi, “to breathe, blow”) (as well as ἀϋτμή (aütmḗ, “breath, scent”), which is now considered unrelated); however, this leaves the vocalism unexplained. Despite superficially similar semantics and phonetics, not from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eh₁t- (“to breathe”) (whence German Atem (“breath”), Sanskrit आत्मन् (ātmán, “breath; soul”)).^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /aːt.mós/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /atˈmos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /atˈmos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /atˈmos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /atˈmos/

Noun

ἀτμός • (atmós) m (genitive ἀτμοῦ); second declension

vapor, steam, smoke
odor

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ ἀτμός; τοῦ ἀτμοῦ (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ ἀτμός ho atmós	τὼ ἀτμώ tṑ atmṓ	οἱ ἀτμοί hoi atmoí
Genitive	τοῦ ἀτμοῦ toû atmoû	τοῖν ἀτμοῖν toîn atmoîn	τῶν ἀτμῶν tôn atmôn
Dative	τῷ ἀτμῷ tōî atmōî	τοῖν ἀτμοῖν toîn atmoîn	τοῖς ἀτμοῖς toîs atmoîs
Accusative	τὸν ἀτμόν tòn atmón	τὼ ἀτμώ tṑ atmṓ	τοὺς ἀτμούς toùs atmoús
Vocative	ἀτμέ atmé	ἀτμώ atmṓ	ἀτμοί atmoí
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

→ English: atmo-
Greek: ατμός (atmós)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἀτμός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 164

“ἀτμός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ἀτμός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
ἀτμός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ἀτμός in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2025)
ἀτμός in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- exhalation idem, page 291.
- fume idem, page 349.
- reek idem, page 684.
- smoke idem, page 787.
- steam idem, page 814.
- vapour idem, page 944.
Pokorny, Julius (1959) Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), Bern, München: Francke Verlag
ἀτμός, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἀτμός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 164

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