μῆον

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Traditionally derived from μεῖον (meîon, “lesser”) for its small size. However, Furnée compares μαῖον (maîon, “kind of clover”), which would point to Pre-Greek origin.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̂ː.on/ → /ˈmi.on/ → /ˈmi.on/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /mɛ̂ː.on/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈme̝.on/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.on/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.on/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.on/

Noun

μῆον • (mêon) n (genitive μήου); second declension

1. baldmoney, spignel (Meum athamanticum)
   • 40 CE – 90 CE, Dioscorides, Materia medica 1.3
   • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 14.150

Declension

Second declension of τὸ μῆον; τοῦ μήου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ μῆον tò mêon	τὼ μήω tṑ mḗō	τᾰ̀ μῆᾰ tà mêa
Genitive	τοῦ μήου toû mḗou	τοῖν μήοιν toîn mḗoin	τῶν μήων tôn mḗōn
Dative	τῷ μήῳ tôi mḗōi	τοῖν μήοιν toîn mḗoin	τοῖς μήοις toîs mḗois
Accusative	τὸ μῆον tò mêon	τὼ μήω tṑ mḗō	τᾰ̀ μῆᾰ tà mêa
Vocative	μῆον mêon	μήω mḗō	μῆᾰ mêa
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Descendants

• → Arabic: مُو (mū)
• → English: meon
• → French: méon, méon athamantique
• → Hebrew: מו (Medieval)
• → Latin: mēum
  • → English: meum
  • → (perhaps) Middle French: meu
    • → English: meu
  • → Translingual: Meum, Meum athamanticum
• → Classical Syriac: ܡܘ, ܩܝܘܢ

Further reading

• “μῆον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• μῆον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN