# νήπιος
## Ancient Greek
### Etymology

The word is presumably the negative prefix νη-, but the stem is unclear. Strong's Greek Lexicon (1890) suggests νη- (nē-, negative prefix) +‎ ἔπος (épos, “speech”), compare Latin infans (“infant”) from in- (not) +‎ fāns (speaking). But a 2010 review by Beekes favors instead a derivation from ἤπιος, as suggested by Lacroix in 1937, with a possible PIE root *h2ep meaning 'join,' from which we would also have ἅπτω.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /nɛ̌ː.pi.os/ → /ˈni.pi.os/ → /ˈni.pi.os/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /nɛ̌ː.pi.os/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /ˈne̝.pi.os/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /ˈni.pi.os/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /ˈni.pi.os/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /ˈni.pi.os/

### Adjective

νήπῐος • (nḗpios) m (feminine νηπῐ́ᾱ, neuter νήπῐον); first/second declension
* childish, infantile, juvenile, young
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.440
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.136
** 413 BCE, Euripides, Ion 1399
** 425 BCE, Euripides, Andromache 755
** 430 BCE, Euripides, Herakles' Children 956
** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Politics 1340B.30
** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1105A.2
** 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 4.20.8
** New Testament, Epistle to the Galatians 4:1
** 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Epidemics 6.1.4
** 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 17.826
** 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Aphorisms 4.1
** (of animals)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.311
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.113
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 17.134
*** 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 8.1.7
** (of the understanding) childish, untaught, silly, credulous
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 13.237
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 16.46
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.44
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 22.445
*** 490 BCE – 430 BCE, Empedocles, Collected Works 11.1
*** 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 3.82
*** 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 443
*** 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Democritus, Collected Works 76
*** 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 145
*** 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 652
*** 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Fragments 157
*** 431 BCE, Euripides, Medea 891
*** 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 105
** (of bodily strength)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.561

#### Inflection
### Noun

νήπῐος • (nḗpios) m (genitive νηπῐ́ου); second declension (Attic)
* infant, child
** 53 CE – 55 CE, Paul the Apostle, First Epistle to the Corinthians 13:11:ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος, ἐλάλουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος· ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ, κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου.hóte ḗmēn nḗpios, eláloun hōs nḗpios, ephrónoun hōs nḗpios, elogizómēn hōs nḗpios; hóte gégona anḗr, katḗrgēka tà toû nēpíou.When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things (KJV)

#### Declension
### References

* “νήπιος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “νήπιος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “νήπιος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
* νήπιος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
* νήπιος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
* “νήπιος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
* G3516 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
* Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited. babe idem, page 57.child idem, page 129.childish idem, page 130.infant idem, page 437.infantile idem, page 437.little idem, page 495.puerile idem, page 656.young idem, page 997.