τόπος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Seemingly an inherited term, though the broad semantic range of the word makes ascertaining further origin and cognates difficult:

• If from Proto-Indo-European *top-o-s:
  • From Proto-Indo-European *tep- (“to hit, stick, smear”), and cognate with Proto-Slavic *teti (“to beat”), Lithuanian tèpti (“to smear, grease”). The sense development would be "to smear" > "stain, spot" > "spot, place"; for a semantic parallel, compare English spot, German Flecken (“village”). This derivation appears to be favored by Beekes.
  • Per Meier-Brugger, from Proto-Indo-European *tep- (“to be hot”), with sense development "hot place, hearth" > "any place".
• If from Proto-Indo-European *tokʷ-o-s:
  • From Proto-Indo-European *tekʷ- (“to run, flow”). This is semantically difficult.

Others (though surprisingly, not Beekes) have suggested Pre-Greek origin; note similarities to Albanian tokë (“floor, earth”) (compare darkë (“supper, feast”) vs. δόρπον (dórpon, “supper, dinner; evening”), bajgë (“dung”) vs. βολβός (bolbós, “bulb”), etc.), with a potential proto-form *tò-kʷV- or *tòw-kʷV-. See also Hittite 𒋼𒂊𒃷 (tēkan), [script needed] (tagnās). (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /tó.pos/ → /ˈto.pos/ → /ˈto.pos/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /tó.pos/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈto.pos/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈto.pos/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈto.pos/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈto.pos/

Noun

τόπος • (tópos) m (genitive τόπου); second declension

1. place, location
2. topic; (rhetoric) commonplace
3. position, office
4. opportunity, possibility

Inflection

Second declension of ὁ τόπος; τοῦ τόπου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ὁ τόπος ho tópos	τὼ τόπω tṑ tópō	οἱ τόποι hoi tópoi
Genitive	τοῦ τόπου toû tópou	τοῖν τόποιν toîn tópoin	τῶν τόπων tôn tópōn
Dative	τῷ τόπῳ tôi tópōi	τοῖν τόποιν toîn tópoin	τοῖς τόποις toîs tópois
Accusative	τὸν τόπον tòn tópon	τὼ τόπω tṑ tópō	τοὺς τόπους toùs tópous
Vocative	τόπε tópe	τόπω tópō	τόποι tópoi
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Derived terms

• ἀτοπία (atopía)
• ἄτοπος (átopos)
• ἐκτοπίζω (ektopízō)
• ἐκτοπισμός (ektopismós)
• ἔκτοπος (éktopos)
• ἐντοπίζω (entopízō)
• ἐντόπιος (entópios)
• ἔντοπος (éntopos)
• τοπάζω (topázō)
• τοπίζω (topízō)
• τοπικός (topikós)
• τοπογραφέω (topographéō)
• τοπογραφία (topographía)
• τοπόγραφος (topógraphos)
• τοποθεσία (topothesía)
• τοπομαχέω (topomakhéō)

 

Descendants

• → Coptic: ⲧⲟⲡⲟⲥ (topos)
• → English: topos, topo-, -tope
• → German: Topos
• Greek: τόπος (tópos)
• Mariupol Greek: то́пус (tópus)
• → Latin: topia

Further reading

• “τόπος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “τόπος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• τόπος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• G5117 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • destination idem, page 217.
  • locality idem, page 497.
  • place idem, page 616.
  • quarter idem, page 663.
  • region idem, page 687.
  • scene idem, page 738.
  • scenery idem, page 738.
  • situation idem, page 780.
  • spot idem, page 804.
  • tract idem, page 885.
  • zone idem, page 997.

Greek

Etymology

Inherited from Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos). The mathematical sense, a semantic loan from New Latin locus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈto.pos/
• Hyphenation: τό‧πος

Noun

τόπος • (tópos) m (plural τόποι)

1. place, location, locality
   1. country
   2. native land
   3. home town
2. space, room (occupied by something)
3. soil, land
4. (mathematics) locus (set of points)

Declension

	singular	plural
nominative	τόπος (tópos)	τόποι (tópoi)
genitive	τόπου (tópou)	τόπων (tópon)
accusative	τόπο (tópo)	τόπους (tópous)
vocative	τόπε (tópe)	τόποι (tópoi)

Derived terms

• κατά τόπους (katá tópous)
• κοινός τόπος m (koinós tópos, “commonplace”)

 

Related terms

• τοπο- (topo-), τοπ- compounds
• -τοπος (-topos) compounds

for example:

• αγριότοπος m (agriótopos, “wild country, wilderness”)
• τοπογράφος m (topográfos, “topographer”)
• τοποθεσία f (topothesía, “position, place”)
• τοποθετώ (topothetó, “to position”)
• τοπωνύμιο n (toponýmio, “toponym, placename”) / τοπωνυμία f (toponymía)

Further reading

• τόπος on the Greek Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^el