φύς

φῡ́ς • (phū́s) m (feminine φῦσᾰ, neuter φῠ́ν); first/third declension

1. second aorist active masculine participle of φῠ́ω (phúō): "(he) has sprung forth/been brought forth, (he) has been begotten, (he) has been born"

Substantivization/nominalization of the participle φῡ́ς (phū́s).

φῡ́ς • (phū́s) m (genitive φύντος); third declension

1. (literally): he who has sprung forth/been brought forth, he who has been begotten, he who has been born
2. (metonymically, generally with the definite article present): son, (male) child, (male) descendant

The apparent IE root of the Ancient Greek verb φῠ́ω (phúō), *bʰuh₂-, seems to have originally had the intransitive meanings "to appear/spring forth", "to grow/wax", "to become". Despite this, by the classical period φῠ́ω (phúō) assumed, in the present tense, both the transitive meanings "to bring forth" ("to make spring forth", and so "to produce", "to beget", "to engender"), and the intransitive meanings "to arise", "to emerge", "to spring up", "to grow". Often, Greek verbs with both transitive and intransitive meanings developed two aorist tenses: a first aorist (aorist 1) to assume the transitive meanings, and a second aorist (aorist 2) to assume the intransitive. Classical Greek second aorist tenses ending in -ην (e.g. βάινω/ἒβην), -ων (e.g. βιόω /ἐβίων), and -υν (e.g. δύομαι /ἒδυν) are generally intransitive. Accordingly, in the case of φῠ́ω (phúō), a second aorist tense (second aorist ἔφῡν) arose to assume those intransitive meanings in the historical context. While the basic meanings of ἔφῡσᾰ (éphūsa), the first aorist tense of φῠ́ω (phúō), then, are identical with the transitive meanings of the present tense ("to bring forth", "to produce", "to cause to arise/appear", "to beget"), the basic meanings of second aorist ἔφῡν (éphūn) are more in line with the intransitive meanings of φῠ́ω and of the presumed IE root, *bʰuh₂-. The instant participle, φῡ́ς, is the second aorist active masculine participle of the verb φῠ́ω, and so has essentially intransitive meanings in the active voice.

It is axiomatic that verbs and verb forms used intransitively, having no object, cannot take the passive voice, but rather always are expressed in the active voice without expressing causation. Even so, in translating verbs from one language to another, equivalencies may find expression; valid active meanings which ignore causation ("to arise/become"), as well as valid equivalent passive meanings ("to be made/produced") can be supplied in English for translation of an intransitive Greek verb or verb form. While the basic meanings of the second aorist verb forms first person ἔφῡν and participle φῡ́ς are (in the Greek) essentially intransitive in nature and of active voice, those essentially intransitive meanings may be expressed in English translation using either active verbal meanings not expressing causation ("to appear/spring forth", "to grow/wax", "to become"), or equivalent passive verbal meanings ("to be made/produced", "to be engendered", "to be caused to be/exist", "to be caused to grow/wax"). In the specific case of the substantivized aorist masculine participle, which clearly refers to a (male) person or persons, the essentially intransitive meaning of the second aorist took on meanings both markedly passive and more specific to the human condition ("to be begotten", "to be born"). It is because of the foregoing that, with respect to verb φῠ́ω (phúō), the second aorist masculine participle φῡ́ς (phū́s) can so drastically differ in meaning from the first aorist masculine participle φῡ́σᾱς (phū́sās), and that, with respect to the basic meaning of verb φῠ́ω (phúō), the (first aorist) active participle φῡ́σᾱς (phū́sās) can substantively represent the agent noun "father", and φῡ́ς (phū́s), in like manner an active participle, can substantively represent the result noun "son".

• φῡ́σᾱς (phū́sās, “father/forefather/ancestor”)
• φῡ́σαντες (phū́santes, “fathers/forefathers/parents”)

• “φύς”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers