ephelcystic nu

From Ancient Greek νῦ ἐφελκυστικόν (nû ephelkustikón, literally “attractive nu; dragged-in nu; affixed nu”), from the letter νῦ (nû) + ἐφελκῠστῐκός (ephelkŭstĭkós, “attracted to; drawn towards”) from ἐφέλκυσις (ephélkusis, “attraction, pull; affixation”). Shortened from earlier ἐφελκυστικόν τοῦ νῦ (ephelkustikón toû nû, literally “pulling in nu; attracting nu”), transferring the epithet to the letter nu itself.

ephelcystic nu (plural ephelcystic nus)

1. (grammar, linguistics, phonology) Euphonic nu ⟨ν⟩ (n). Consonant ⟨ν⟩ affixed to vowel endings of some Ancient Greek grammatical forms to produce euphony: in prevocalic position, to avoid sounding two vowels in a row (hiatus), and prevent elision or fusion of vowels contracting into one sound (crasis). In preconsonantal coda position, ⟨ν⟩ may be added to create a long syllable in poetic meter. Nu is also usually written before a pause at the end of a clause in prose or the end of a verse in poetry.
2. (grammar, linguistic morphology) Paragogic nu ⟨ν⟩ (n), understood as an allomorph of certain Greek morphemic forms otherwise terminating in vowels ⟨ε⟩ (e) or ⟨ι⟩ (i), viz. third person verb and third declension dative plural noun forms, phonemically represented as -ε(ν) (-e(n)) and -ῐ(ν) (-ĭ(n)). An early Attic–Ionic innovation, nu paragoge spread through the Hellenic world; inclusion or omission of ⟨ν⟩ in ancient inscriptions is so variable and unpredictable as to suggest morphemes with and without ⟨ν⟩ occurred in free variation, not bound to the prescriptive rules of phonetic harmony codified by later Byzantine grammarians.

• movable nu
• nu euphonic
• nu paragogic