cyphi

Latin

Alternative forms

• cȳfi, quīfi (manuscript variants)

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κῦφι (kûphi).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkyː.pʰi/, [ˈkyːpʰɪ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃi.fi/, [ˈt͡ʃiːfi]

Noun

cȳphi n (genitive cȳphis); third declension

1. a kind of compound incense from the Egyptians
   • 392 CE, Jerome, Against Jovinianus II.8:

     Odoris autem suavitas et diversa thymiamata et amomum et cyphi, oenanthe, muscus et peregrini muris pellicula, quod dissolutis et amatoribus conveniat, nemo nisi dissolutus negat.

     That the sweetness of the smell of various kinds of incense and amomum and cyphi, oenanthe, musk, and the skins of the exotic mouse fit the dissolute and loving nobody but a dissolute will negate.

Declension

Third-declension noun (neuter, “pure” i-stem), singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	cȳphi
Genitive	cȳphis
Dative	cȳphī
Accusative	cȳphi
Ablative	cȳphī
Vocative	cȳphi

Descendants

• >? Catalan: xufla, xufa
• >? Spanish: chufa
  • → English: chufa

Further reading

• “cyphi”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• cyphi in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cyphi in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• “cȳphi” in volume 4, column 1593, line 12–18 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present