πνέω

πνέω

Grammatical information: v.

Meaning: `to blow, to breathe, to respire, to smell'.

Other forms: ep. πνείω (metr. length.), aor. πνεῦσαι (Il.), ipv. ἄμπνυε, midd. -ῡτο, -ύ̄(ν)θη (Hom.), fut. πνεύ-σομαι (IA.). -σοῦμαι (Ar., Arist.), -σω (hell.), perf. πέπνευκα (Att.), pass. πνευσ-θῆναι (Thphr.), -θήσομαι (Aret.).

Compounds: Very often w. prefix, e.g. ἀνα-, ἀπο-, εἰσ-, ἐκ-, ἐν-, ἐπι-, προσ-.

Derivatives: 1. πνοή, Dor. πνο(ι)ά, ep. πνοιή (-οι- metr. condit. after πνείω, Risch 119; on other explanations, which are not to be preferred, Scheller Oxytonierung 83 n. 2 w. lit.) f. `wind, breeze, breath' (Il.); ἀνα-, δια-, ἐκ-πνέω etc. etc.; very often as 2. member, e.g. ἡδύ- (ἁδύ-)πνοος, -πνους `with a pleasant wind, breath' (Pi., S., E.), ἐπί-πνοος, -πνους `inspired' with ἐπίπνο-ια f. `inspiration' (A., Pl.); -πνοια also beside -πνοή in ἀνά-, ἀπό-, διά- πνέω a.o.; here ἀναπνο-ϊκος `concerning breathing' (Ptol.). 2. πνεῦμα (ἄμ-, πρόσ- πνέω) n. `wind, breeze, breath, ghost' (Pi., IA.) with πνευμά-τιον (hell.), -τικός `concerning the wind etc.' (Arist.; on the further life (Nachleben) in the westeur. languages. Chantraine Studii clasice 2, 70f.), -τιος `bringing wind' (Arat.), -τώδης `wind-, breathlike of nature, windy' (Hp., Arist.), -τίας m. `asthmatic' (Hp.) with -τιάω `to gasp' (sch.); -τόω, -τόομαι `to blow up, to (cause to) vaporize' (Anaxipp., Arist.) with -τωσις, -τωτικός; -τίζω (ἀπο-) `to fan by blowing' (Antig., H.) with -τισμός. 3. πνεῦσις f. `blowing', more usu. the compp., e.g. ἀνάπνευ-σις `to breathe again, to inhale, respite' (Il.). 4. With second. σ and τ-suffix as in ἄ-πνευσ-τος, -τί, -τία: πνευσ-τικός `belonging to breathing' (Gal.), more usu. ἀνα-πνέω (Arist.) a.o.; -τιάω `to gasp' (Hp., Arist.). 5. εἴσπν-ηλος, -ήλας `loving, lover' (Call., Theoc., EM), from εἰσ-πνέω `to inspire (love)' with analog. -ηλος; cf. Chantraine Form. 242.

Origin: IE [Indo-European] [838] *pneu- `breathe, cough, clow, smell'

Etymology: The regular structure of the above forms is clearly the result of a generalising development, which will also have had zero grade formations as πνεῦσις, ἄπνευστος. Outside the general pattern there are only the isolated ep. forms ἄμ-πνυ-ε etc. `take breath' = `recover from', which may provide a bridge to the semantically slightly deviating but certainly belonging here πέ-πνυ-μαι, -μένος, `mentally active, animated, be sedate'; cf. Ruijgh L'élém. ach. 134 f. Not here prob. πινυ-τή, πινυτός a. cognates, which have only been connected on difficult assumptions; s.v. In any case ἄμπνυε, πέπνυ-μαι are not with Schulze Q. 322 ff. to be separated from πνέω. -- From other languages only some Germ. formations can be compared: OWNo. fnýsa `sniff', OE fnēosan `sneeze', which like πνευ- may contain an IE eu-diphthong; beside them there are however several variants, e.g. OWNo. fnasa, OHG fnehan, which show the unstable character of these orig. onomatop. words. Uncertain is the connection of Skt. abhi-knū́yate `be moist, sound, stink' (Dhātup., Lex.) with dissim. from *abhi-pn- (Mayrhofer s. knū́yate). -- The further analysis of πνέ(Ϝ)-ω in *p-ne-u-mi with nasal infix to the root pu- (assumption by Schwyzer 696 α after Pedersen IF 2, 314) is in the case of a word of this meaning hardly convincing. Further forms w. lit. in WP. 2, 85, Pok. 838f. Here also ποιπνύω; cf. also πνί̄γω.

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