πῆχυς

See also: πήχυς

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• πᾶχῠς (pâkhus) — Aeolic

Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *pā́kʰus, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂ǵʰus. Cognates include Sanskrit बाहु (bāhu, “arm”), Old Persian 𐎲𐎠𐏀𐎢 (b-a-z-u /⁠bāzu⁠/) (Persian بازو (bâzu)), and Old English bōg (English bough).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pɛ̂ː.kʰys/ → /ˈpi.çys/ → /ˈpi.çis/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pɛ̂ː.kʰys/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpe̝.kʰys/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.çys/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.çys/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpi.çis/

Noun

πῆχῠς • (pêkhus) m (genitive πήχεως); third declension

1. forearm, from the wrist to the elbow
   • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Collected Works 751C
2. the centrepiece, which joined the two horns of an ancient bow
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 21.419
3. (in the plural) the horns or sides of the lyre
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 4.192
4. (in the balance) the beam
   • Theological Principles of Arithmetic 39
5. (as a measure of length) cubit, the distance from the point of the elbow to that of the little finger
   • ante 177 CE, Pollux, Onomasticon 2.158
   1. a cubit-rule, foot-rule
      • 405 BCE, Aristophanes, The Frogs 799
6. (in the plural) the cubits, small children one cubit in height represented in pictures as playing round the Nile
   • 125 CE – 200 CE, Lucian, A Professor of Public Speaking 6
   • 170 CE – 250 CE, Philostratus, Collected Works 769

Inflection

Third declension of ὁ πῆχῠς; τοῦ πήχεως (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ πῆχῠς ho pêkhus	τὼ πήχει tṑ pḗkhei	οἱ πήχεις hoi pḗkheis
Genitive	τοῦ πήχεως toû pḗkheōs	τοῖν πηχέοιν toîn pēkhéoin	τῶν πήχεων tôn pḗkheōn
Dative	τῷ πήχει tôi pḗkhei	τοῖν πηχέοιν toîn pēkhéoin	τοῖς πήχεσῐ / πήχεσῐν toîs pḗkhesi(n)
Accusative	τὸν πῆχῠν tòn pêkhun	τὼ πήχει tṑ pḗkhei	τοὺς πήχεις toùs pḗkheis
Vocative	πῆχῠ pêkhu	πήχει pḗkhei	πήχεις pḗkheis
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “lyre horns”): ζυγόν (zugón, “bridge”)

Descendants

• Greek: πήχης (píchis)
• →⇒ Italian: pechiagra

References

• “πῆχυς”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “πῆχυς”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “πῆχυς”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• πῆχυς in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• πῆχυς in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• G4083 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• πῆχυς in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • arm idem, page 40.
  • cubit idem, page 188.
  • ell idem, page 265.
  • forearm idem, page 336.
  • inch idem, page 428.
  • yard idem, page 995.
  • yard-measure idem, page 995.