What is Empnefsys?

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What is Empnefsys?

In its simplest form, โ€œEmpnefsysโ€ is the Greek word for inspiration. More specifically, the exact Greek word is โ€œรฉmpnefsiโ€ ย or โ€œรฉmbnefsiโ€ written as โ€˜ฮˆฮผฯ€ฮฝฮตฯ…ฯƒฮทโ€™. The word derives from the Hellenistic word โ€˜แผ”ฮผฯ€ฮฝฮตฯ…(ฯƒฮนฯ‚)โ€™ pronouncedย โ€œรฉmpnev(sis)โ€ that comes from the verb โ€˜แผฮผฯ€ฮฝฮญฯ‰โ€™ (แผฮฝ + ฯ€ฮฝฮญฯ‰), pronounced โ€œempnรฉoโ€ (en + pnรฉo). โ€˜แผฮฝโ€™ is a preposition that means in, on or at and when combined with certain letters becomes โ€˜แผฮผโ€™ (like the case above) or โ€˜ฮตฮณโ€™. The second word, โ€˜ฯ€ฮฝฮญฯ‰โ€™, means blow. So, from what is written, โ€œรฉmpnefsiโ€ means blow in/on/at. Thatโ€™s roughly correct, as the original meaning of the word is โ€œblow intoโ€.

Are you still with me? Great. Itโ€™s not complicated I promise. Todayโ€™s meaning of the word as used in the name of the blog comes from the French word inspiration, and it is a semantic loan to the Greek language.

(Hint: If you donโ€™t know what a semantic loan is, look at the BONUS section)

ฮˆฮผฯ€ฮฝฮตฯ…ฯƒฮทฯ‚, Empnefsys

Why Empnefsys and not Inspiration then?

Easy. As you can imagine, I speak Greek, and I simply chose this word because I want to promote the Greek language. As you can see, I didnโ€™t use the exact word that it is used today (รฉmpnefsi), but I used a more archaic version of it (รฉmpnefsis). Thatโ€™s because: 1) I think it sounds better next to and (see empnefsys and travel) and 2) I wanted to use a y instead of an i, and it simply looked better to my eye that way.

Y??? Why did you want to use y instead of i?

Well, you are right I should use an i, as this is how the word is written when Latin characters are used. BUT I wanted to use y because of its history. What? Do letters have a history? Of course, they do! Donโ€™t worry Iโ€™m not an expert. I donโ€™t know the history of each letter of the alphabet, it just happened to know where y comes from and I wanted to use it.

Can you guess whatโ€™s special aboutย y? Timeโ€™s up!ย Y/yย originates from the Greek letter ฮฅ/ฯ…ย Ypsilon (ฯฯˆฮนฮปฮฟฮฝ), and it is still referred to as the โ€œGreek iโ€ in many languages like French (i grec) or Spanish (i griega)ย or it is calledย /หˆสpsilษ”n/ like German.


Conclusion?

Are you a bit lost? Donโ€™t worry. I am summing up what I wrote above here. Empnefsys is the Greek word for inspiration. Greek is my native language, and therefore I want to promote it. Lastly, I chose to write Empenfsys instead of Empnefsis or Empnefsi as this was a way to put in the word the letterย y that is of Greek origin.

Read all of my Empnefsys articles here.

BONUS

As I promised above, here it is, the explanation of semantic loan or more accurately semantic calque. Calque (comes from the French noun โ€˜calqueโ€™ and means โ€œtracing; imitation; close copyโ€) is a word used in linguistics and means loan translation. There are different types of calques, and one of them is semantic calque that basically means borrowing the semantic meaning of a word from another language. A simple example (as given in Wikipedia) is the word mouse. Nowadays, mouse not only refers to an animal ?ย but also it refers to an electronic device: the computer mouse ?๏ธ. The computer mouse has taken its name because it resembles the actual animal. Following this, many other languages have broadened their definition of the word mouse (as an animal) to include the new definition (as a computer device).

Sources:

I created this article with the help of online dictionaries, articles about word origins and Wikipedia. I cite below their URLs (they were accessible the day I have published the article โ€“ for the exact date see above).


P.S. If you didnโ€™t realise, this was my first post! Horray!!! ? Thank you for reading it! What do you think about it? Let me know in the comments. I accept good, bad comments and anything in between but not rude ones. Also, I accept comments in Greek, English, French, Spanish and any other language as long as I can translate them with Google Translate! ?

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Elina Michaelidou

Elina is a computer science graduate and a traveller enthusiastic. Read everything about her travel experiences here.

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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Andrea

    I had never thought so deeply of this word and itโ€™s really amazing how this word changes as I read your article. The word empnefsys becomes more meaningful and more understanding especially when you explained the use of the letter โ€˜yโ€™ and its history. Through this article a higher level of understanding is reached. Thank you very much for publishing it.

    1. Elina Michaelidou

      Iโ€™m glad that you liked it! ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. Christina

    Nice article Elina mou. Keep up the good work!

    1. Elina Michaelidou

      Thanks!! ๐Ÿ™‚

  3. Maria Klerides

    Very good article. It explains in an innovative way the word empnefsys and promotes Greek values.
    Well done Elina!!
    Good luck with your blog

    1. Elina Michaelidou

      Thank you! ๐Ÿ™‚