νήπιος

The word is presumably the negative prefix νη-, but the stem is unclear. Strong's Greek Lexicon (1890) suggests νη- (nē-, negative prefix) +‎ ἔπος (épos, “speech”), compare Latin infans (“infant”) from in- (not) +‎ fāns (speaking). But a 2010 review by Beekes favors instead a derivation from ἤπιος, as suggested by Lacroix in 1937, with a possible PIE root *h2ep meaning 'join,' from which we would also have ἅπτω.

νήπῐος • (nḗpios) m (feminine νηπῐ́ᾱ, neuter νήπῐον); first/second declension

1. childish, infantile, juvenile, young
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.440
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.136
   • 413 BCE, Euripides, Ion 1399
   • 425 BCE, Euripides, Andromache 755
   • 430 BCE, Euripides, Herakles' Children 956
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Politics 1340B.30
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1105A.2
   • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 4.20.8
   • New Testament, Epistle to the Galatians 4:1
   • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Epidemics 6.1.4
   • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 17.826
   • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Aphorisms 4.1
   1. (of animals)
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.311
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.113
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 17.134
      • 371 BCE – 287 BCE, Theophrastus, Enquiry into Plants 8.1.7
   2. (of the understanding) childish, untaught, silly, credulous
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 13.237
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 16.46
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.44
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 22.445
      • 490 BCE – 430 BCE, Empedocles, Collected Works 11.1
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 3.82
      • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 443
      • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Democritus, Collected Works 76
      • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 145
      • 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 652
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Fragments 157
      • 431 BCE, Euripides, Medea 891
      • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 105
   3. (of bodily strength)
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.561

νήπῐος • (nḗpios) m (genitive νηπῐ́ου); second declension (Attic)

1. infant, child
   • 53 CE – 55 CE, Paul the Apostle, First Epistle to the Corinthians 13:11:

     ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος, ἐλάλουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος, ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος· ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ, κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου.

     hóte ḗmēn nḗpios, eláloun hōs nḗpios, ephrónoun hōs nḗpios, elogizómēn hōs nḗpios; hóte gégona anḗr, katḗrgēka tà toû nēpíou.

     When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things (KJV)

• “νήπιος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “νήπιος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “νήπιος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• νήπιος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• νήπιος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “νήπιος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3516 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • babe idem, page 57.
  • child idem, page 129.
  • childish idem, page 130.
  • infant idem, page 437.
  • infantile idem, page 437.
  • little idem, page 495.
  • puerile idem, page 656.
  • young idem, page 997.