οὐ

See also: ου, -ου, -ού, οὔ, οὖ, οὗ, Ȣ, ᴕ, Appendix:Variations of "ou", and Appendix:Variations of "oy"

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

οὐκ (ouk) — before vowel with smooth breathing
οὐχ (oukh) — before vowel with rough breathing
οὔ (oú) — pausal form
οὐχί (oukhí) — Epic, Attic
οὐκί (oukí) — Epic, Ionic

Etymology

Possibly οὐκί (oukí, “not so, never”), from Proto-Hellenic *oyuki, from Proto-Indo-European *(ne) h₂óyu kʷíd (“(not) ever, (not) on your life”).^[1]^[2] Compare Sanskrit उद् (ud), Old Armenian ոչ (očʻ) and Albanian as.

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /uː/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /u/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /u/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /u/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /u/

Particle

οὐ • (ou) (negative particle)

not (indicates negation)

Usage notes

οὐ is the indicative negator (i.e. of facts, statements), where μή (mḗ) is the subjunctive negator (i.e. of will, thought). It usually immediately precedes the word (most often a verb) which it negates. Negative concord (also known as double negatives) is frequent in Ancient Greek.

Descendants

Byzantine Greek: ὄχι (ókhi) from the phrase ἐγώ (egṓ) οὐχί (oukhí)
- > Greek: όχι (óchi) (inherited)

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “οὐ”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1123
^ Martirosyan, Hrach (2010) “očʿ”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 531

“οὐ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“οὐ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“οὐ”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
οὐ 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
οὐ in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“οὐ”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G3756 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.
- nay idem, page 553.
- no idem, page 559.
- not idem, page 562.
- tear idem, page 859.

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “οὐ”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1123

[2] Martirosyan, Hrach (2010) “očʿ”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 531

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