οὐ

οὐ

Grammatical information: neg. pcle

Meaning: `not'

Other forms: antevoc. οὑκ, οὑχ (Il.), οὑκί (ep.), οὑχί (trag., also Hom. a. Att. prose).

Dialectal forms: Myc. ouqe `and not'

Origin: IE [Indo-European]X [probably] [17] *h₂eiu- `lifetime, long period'

Etymology: Uncertain. Pre-Gr. origin is considered by Wackernagel Syntax 2, 257 and Kretschmer Glotta 14, 230. Several IE etymologies have been attempted: Skt. úd, Goth. ūt `from'; lat. au- and haud; Arm. oč`not'. Cowgill Lang. 36, 347 ff. connected the element with αἰών a. cogn., assuming a basis in ne h₂oi̯u kʷid, where *ne was the sentence negative; it lost its meaning to the second element as happened in other languages. The syntagm would also explain Arm. oč' and Alb. s (cf. Kortlandt, Armeniaca, index). S. the synopsis by Schwyzer-Debrunner 591 n. 5 (w. lit.). Not better Carnoy Ant. class. 24, 20 a. Rev. belge de phil. 33,492. -- Hom. οὑ-κί contains as οὔ-τι the IE indef. *kʷi-d (s. τίς; on the phonetics Schwyzer 299); from this through elision οὑκ, with aspiration οὑχ, if not elided from οὑ-χι, like ναί-χι, ἧ-χι a.o. = Skt. hí (in na-hí `because not' a.o.), Av. zi, IE *ǵhi stressing pcle. (WP. 1, 542, Pok. 417f.). -- From οὑδε εἷς arose οὑδείς, young Att., koine οὑθείς `nobody' (on the phonetics Schwyzer 408); in the same way οὑδ-αμοῦ, -αμοῖ, -αμῶς, -αμός, -άμινος to *ἁμός (s.v.), ἅμα. -- On the use of οὑ etc. except Schwyzer-Debrunner 592 f. w. lit. also A. C. Moorhouse Studies in the Greek Negatives, Cardiff 1959 (rev. by Risch IF 66, 312ff., Humbert BSL 56, 82ff., Whatmough ClassPhil. 56, 65). Older lit. also in Bq.

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