ῥάφανος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ῥαφάνη (rhaphánē), ῥέφανος (rhéphanos)

Etymology

The formation is similar to other plant names, such as λάχανον (lákhanon), πήγανον (pḗganon) and πύανος (púanos). Since the word is widespread only in Europe, and since it has variant forms, it cannot be an inherited word from Indo-European, but must have been borrowed instead, or otherwise belong to a substrate. Latin rāpum (“turnip”), Old High German ruoba (“turnip, rape”) and Lithuanian rope (“turnip”) point to a pre-form *rāp-; beside this we find Old High German raba and Proto-Slavic *rěpa (“turnip”), which point to *rēp-. In Greek we find also ῥάπυς (rhápus) and ῥάφυς (rháphus, “turnip”). Since the variation "π/φ" and the suffix "-αν-" are evidently Pre-Greek features, the word may originally be of substrate stock; thence the European cognates cited above were borrowed.^[1]

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /r̥á.pʰa.nos/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈra.pʰa.nos/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈra.ɸa.nos/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈra.fa.nos/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈra.fa.nos/

Noun

ῥάφᾰνος • (rháphănos) f (genitive ῥαφᾰ́νου); second declension

cabbage (Brassica cretica)

Inflection

Second declension of ἡ ῥάφᾰνος; τῆς ῥαφᾰ́νου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ἡ ῥάφᾰνος hē rháphănos	τὼ ῥαφᾰ́νω tṑ rhaphắnō	αἱ ῥάφᾰνοι hai rháphănoi
Genitive	τῆς ῥαφᾰ́νου tês rhaphắnou	τοῖν ῥαφᾰ́νοιν toîn rhaphắnoin	τῶν ῥαφᾰ́νων tôn rhaphắnōn
Dative	τῇ ῥαφᾰ́νῳ tēî rhaphắnōi	τοῖν ῥαφᾰ́νοιν toîn rhaphắnoin	ταῖς ῥαφᾰ́νοις taîs rhaphắnois
Accusative	τὴν ῥάφᾰνον tḕn rháphănon	τὼ ῥαφᾰ́νω tṑ rhaphắnō	τᾱ̀ς ῥαφᾰ́νους tā̀s rhaphắnous
Vocative	ῥάφᾰνε rháphăne	ῥαφᾰ́νω rhaphắnō	ῥάφᾰνοι rháphănoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

ῥαφανέλαιον (rhaphanélaion)
ῥαφανηδόν (rhaphanēdón)
ῥαφάνινος (rhapháninos)
ῥαφάνιον (rhaphánion)
ῥαφανίς (rhaphanís)
ῥαφανῖτις (rhaphanîtis)
ῥαφανουρός (rhaphanourós)
χαμαιράφανος (khamairáphanos)

Descendants

→ Latin: raphanus (see there for further descendants)
Translingual: Raphanus

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ῥάφανος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1277