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”).

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 • (múkēs) 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 múkēs	τὼ μῠ́κητε tṑ múkēte	οἱ μῠ́κητες hoi múkētes
Genitive	τοῦ μῠ́κητος toû múkētos	τοῖν μῠκήτοιν toîn mukḗtoin	τῶν μῠκήτων tôn mukḗtōn
Dative	τῷ μῠ́κητῐ tôi múkēti	τοῖν μῠκήτοιν toîn mukḗtoin	τοῖς μῠ́κησῐ / μῠ́κησῐν toîs múkēsi(n)
Accusative	τὸν μῠ́κητᾰ tòn múkēta	τὼ μῠ́κητε tṑ múkēte	τοὺς μῠ́κητᾰς toùs múkētas
Vocative	μῠ́κης múkēs	μῠ́κητε múkēte	μῠ́κητες múkētes
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 (mukḗtinos)

Descendants

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

References

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
• Furnée, Edzard J. (1972) “μύκης”, in Die wichtigsten konsonantischen Erscheinungen des Vorgriechischen. Mit einem Appendix über den Vokalismus, Den Haag: Mouton, pages 298–99, 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”) he claims Pre-Greek origin.
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • fungus idem, page 350.
• 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, repeats Furnée’s claim
• “μύκης”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011