μύκης

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Traditionally taken to be a formation in -ητ- from Proto-Indo-European *mew-k- (“slip, slime”), the same root of Latin mūcus (“snivel”); for the development of meaning, compare Proto-Slavic *glìva (“fungus”) beside Lithuanian gléivės (“slime”), from *gleh₁y- (“to be smeary”).

However, Furnee, rejecting a connection to μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to snort, blow one's nose”) (from the same “slime” root), on an assumed basic meaning “prominence, extremity” behind "stump of an olive tree", by comparison with μύσκλοι (múskloi, “stalks of dried up fig trees”) claims a Pre-Greek origin for the word.^[1] Beekes endorses Furnée’s claim, noting the semantic gap between mushrooms and slime (mushrooms, though often associated with growing in areas that do feature slimy organisms, are not themselves usually slimy).^[2]

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /mý.kɛːs/ → /ˈmy.cis/ → /ˈmi.cis/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /mý.kɛːs/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈmy.ke̝s/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈmy.cis/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈmy.cis/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.cis/

Noun

μῠ́κης • (mŭ́kēs) m (genitive μῠ́κητος); third declension

1. mushroom or other fungus
2. any mushroom-shaped object, hence:
   1. chape or cap at the end of a scabbard
   2. penis
   3. fleshy excrescence, such as forms on wounds
   4. (botany) excrescence on trees
   5. stump of an olive cut down
   6. snuff of a lamp-wick

Declension

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ μῠ́κης ho mŭ́kēs	τὼ μῠ́κητε tṑ mŭ́kēte	οἱ μῠ́κητες hoi mŭ́kētes
Genitive	τοῦ μῠ́κητος toû mŭ́kētos	τοῖν μῠκήτοιν toîn mŭkḗtoin	τῶν μῠκήτων tôn mŭkḗtōn
Dative	τῷ μῠ́κητῐ tôi mŭ́kētĭ	τοῖν μῠκήτοιν toîn mŭkḗtoin	τοῖς μῠ́κησῐ / μῠ́κησῐν toîs mŭ́kēsĭ(n)
Accusative	τὸν μῠ́κητᾰ tòn mŭ́kētă	τὼ μῠ́κητε tṑ mŭ́kēte	τοὺς μῠ́κητᾰς toùs mŭ́kētăs
Vocative	μῠ́κης mŭ́kēs	μῠ́κητε mŭ́kēte	μῠ́κητες mŭ́kētes
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension. Nominative singular -ς (-s) arose by reduction of the original cluster *-ts.

Third declension of ὁ μῠ́κης; τοῦ μῠ́κητος (Attic)

Derived terms

• μῠκήτῐνος (mŭkḗtĭnos)

Descendants

• Greek: μύκητας (mýkitas)
• → Italian: micete
• → Classical Syriac: ܡܘܩܝܛܐ, ܡܝܘܩܝܛܐܣ
• Translingual: Mycetozoa (taxonomic infraphylum)

References

1. Furnée, Edzard J. (1972) “μύκης”, in Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen. Mit einem Appendix über den Vokalismus, Den Haag: Mouton, pages 298–99
2. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “μύκης”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 977

Further reading

• “μύκης”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μύκης”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• μύκης in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • fungus idem, page 350.
• μύκης, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011