ῥῆον

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

ῥᾶ (rhâ)

Etymology

Traditionally taken to be from Ῥᾶ (Rhâ, “the river Rha, the River Volga”),^[1] though this is now considered folk-etymological reinforcement rather than the true etymology. More likely from Middle Persian or a closely related language, from Proto-Iranian *(h)rabā́š (“rhubarb, fennel”). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /r̥ɛ̂ː.on/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈre̝.on/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈri.on/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈri.on/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈri.on/

Noun

ῥῆον • (rhêon) n (genitive ῥήου); second declension

rhubarb (probably Rheum rhabarbarum)

Inflection

Second declension of τὸ ῥῆον; τοῦ ῥήου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ ῥῆον tò rhêon	τὼ ῥήω tṑ rhḗō	τᾰ̀ ῥῆᾰ tằ rhêă
Genitive	τοῦ ῥήου toû rhḗou	τοῖν ῥήοιν toîn rhḗoin	τῶν ῥήων tôn rhḗōn
Dative	τῷ ῥήῳ tōî rhḗōi	τοῖν ῥήοιν toîn rhḗoin	τοῖς ῥήοις toîs rhḗois
Accusative	τὸ ῥῆον tò rhêon	τὼ ῥήω tṑ rhḗō	τᾰ̀ ῥῆᾰ tằ rhêă
Vocative	ῥῆον rhêon	ῥήω rhḗō	ῥῆᾰ rhêă
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

→ Latin: rhēum
→ Translingual: Rheum

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ῥῆον”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 1283-4

“ῥῆον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
ῥῆον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ῥῆον, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011
J.P. Mallory & D.Q. Adams, Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, s.v. "dew" (London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997), 158-9.
Michiel de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italian Languages, s.v. "rōs, rōris" (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 526-7.
Nourai, Ali. 2013. An Etymological Dictionary of Persian, English and Other Indo-European Languages. Index of Words in Different Languages Vol. 1 Vol. 1. p.130.
Lebedynsky, Iaroslav. Les Sarmates : Amazones et lanciers cuirassés entre Oural et Danube. Paris: Editions Errance, 2002.

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ῥῆον”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 1283-4

[1]