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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 100 general entries. We are selecting 30 for display.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Greek
| Quote: 'Those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me.' This line is from which Shakespearean tragedy? | It's All Greek To Me!
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Julius Caesar. In an earlier work another Elizabethan playwright, Thomas Dekker, had used a similar phrase: 'I'll be sworn he knows not so much as one character of the tongue. Why, then it's Greek to him'. There is a Medieval Latin proverb 'Graecum est, non potest legi' (It is Greek, it cannot be read). The Spanish version of this proverb is 'hablar en griego', which is commonly said to be the origin of the word gringo, so somebody who is called a gringo is literally accused of speaking Greek and hence being unintelligible. (see www.quinion.com)
T. "(h)ippo" is the Ancient Greek word for "horse", and "po-ta-mos" is the Greek word for "river", hence hippopotamus - "horse of the river", an animal that spends most of its day having a bath in a river.
| The alarm rings, you race downstairs and greet the other members of your family with the word or phrase "kalimera": what have you said? | It's All Greek To Me!
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good morning!. As kids mum'd give us a clout over the ear if we were uncivil.
| If the wind is coming from the northeast at 12 miles an hour, what direction is it coming from in Greek? Note: A 'northeast wind' is an entirely different word (graigos), I just want the direction here. | Random Greek Vocabulary
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voreioanatolikos. Voreiodetikos: northwest, notioanatolikos: southeast, notiodetikos: southwest.
HPA. HPA stands for Inomenes Politeies tis Amerikis.
peninda. Eikosi: 20, saranda: 40, eksinda: 60. Peninda: 50.
Islam. A 'tzami' is a mosque.
your grandfather. You are his eg(g)oni, grandchild.
grammatosimo. Dieuthensi: address, megaligoro: to rant, ithiko: morale. Grammatosimo: stamp.
South America. Isimerinos is Ecuador, on South America.
marry him. Arravoniastikos: fiancé, arravoniastikia: fiancée.
drink it. Portokalada: orange juice.
| Now, the scourge of anyone who has tried to read Greek without learning the grammar well enough (like me.) What happens to the augment if the verb begins with a vowel? How, for instance, would you form the aorist of "akouO" "listen"? | Ancient Greek-- The First Aorist
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Ekousamen. Use the "temporal augment"-- lengthen the initial vowel. Alpha and epsilon lengthen to eta; omicron lengthens to omega; iota and upsilon lengthen, but there is no change in the way the vowel is written.
| What is the aorist of a stem that ends in a dental stop, like t, d, or th? What is the correct first aorist of "nomizo," "think"? | Ancient Greek-- The First Aorist
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enomisan. The stem is nomid-. The present tense adds a yod, y. d plus y gives a zeta. This explains nicely how the stem of Zeus in the nominative is Z- but Di- in the oblique cases. Y and I are produced in the same place in the mouth, but Y is a consonant, while I is a vowel. Try it out a few times. But back to the aorist. Adding -san to nomid- gives the cluster ds. A dental stop plus a sigma becomes just a sigma. So, the weak aorist is "enomisan."
| What would be the aorist of a stem that ends in a labial stop, like pi, beta, or phi? What is the correct first aorist of "graphO," "write"? | Ancient Greek-- The First Aorist
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egrapse. The stem is graph- To form the aorist, add a sigma and a weak aorist personal ending. A labial stop plus a sigma gives a psi. Hence, "egrapse."
| How does one form the first aorist of a stem that ends in a palatal stop, like kappa, gamma, or khi? What is the correct first aorist of "phrassO," "fence in, fortify"? | Ancient Greek-- The First Aorist
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ephraxa. The stem is phrag-. The present tense adds a yod, y. A palatal stop plus a yod gives -ss- in Ionic Greek, -tt- in Attic. To form the aorist, take away the yod and add a sigma. A palatal stop plus a sigma always gives a xi. Apparently Greek did not make the distinction between "ks" and "gs." Compare English "ex" and "eggs."
| How would you form the correct first aorist of a stem that ends in a liquid, like n, m, l, or r? What would be the weak aorist of "menO," "remain"? | Ancient Greek-- The First Aorist
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emeinas. The stem is men-. A liquid plus a sigma means that the sigma disappears and the last vowel in the stem is lengthened to compensate. Here, that means the epsilon becomes the actually-not-a-diphthong ei.
| Now, let the complications begin. How does one form the aorist of a stem that ends in a vowel? Take "poieO," "make, do," for instance. What is its weak aorist? | Ancient Greek-- The First Aorist
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epoiEsan. The stem is poie- and ends in a vowel. Lengthen the last vowel in the stem, here the epsilon into an eta, add the sigma and personal ending, and that's it.
| First, an aorist with no tricks up its sleeve. Really. What is the first aorist indicative active first person singular of "keleuO"? | Ancient Greek-- The First Aorist
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ekeleusa. The stem is keleu- The augment is e- at the front of the word. Add a sigma and the first person singular indicative active aorist ending, -a, and that's it! No need for the "lengthen the last vowel in the stem" rule, since -eu- is a diphthong and already long.
| A couple of lines later, when Apollo reaches the Achaean camp, he fits an arrow to the string of his bow, and "ball'" Is this an aorist or an imperfect tense? | Ancient Greek-- The Second Aorist
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Imperfect . The aorist stem is bal-, one lambda. The present stem adds a yod, which manifests itself as a double lambda, ball-. So, we know that "ball'" uses the present stem. Why couldn't it be the present tense? The present personal ending "-ei" would not "elide", but the imperfect personal ending "-e" would. The aorist wouldn't have an appropriate meaning here. It would be "he shot," instead of "he was shooting" or "he started shooting."
| In Book 1 of the Iliad, when Agamemnon tells off the priest Chryses, Chryses "bE d' akeOn para thina poluphloisboio thallassEs." Several lines later, when Apollo hears Chryses' prayers, he "bE de kat' oulumpoio karEnOn khOomenos kEr." What is this word "bE"? This quiz is about second aorists, so you can bet that it is a second aorist; you can tell from context that it is third person singular; but what word does it come from? | Ancient Greek-- The Second Aorist
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bainei. The aorist stem is "ba-", so the" -e" of the third person singluar ending contracts to form "bE". The present stem adds a yod, which shows up as an "-i-", and a nu. To supply some unfamiliar vocabulary from those lines, akeOn = silently; thina = beach; poluphloiboio = loud-roaring, nicely onomotopoetic. KarEnOn = heights; "kEr" is accusative of respect. So, "He went silently along the shore of the loud-roaring sea," and "He went down from the heights of Olympus, angry at heart."
hikomEn. The aorist stem is "hik-". The present stem adds "-ne-", for "hikne-". There are a slew of similar-looking verbs. "hikO" is also a second aorist, "hixon". "hikanO" does not have an aorist, and all the aorist meanings are supplied by "hikneomai". "hiketeuO" is a first aorist, "hiketeusa".
It doesn't have one. Trick question. "eipe" is part of a suppletive verb system, where the present stem is totally different from the aorist stem. The present-tense forms are all built off of "phEmi".
-sk-. The "-sk-" in the present stem is not to be confused with the use of "-sk-" in the imperfect or aorist to denote a "customary or repeated past action." The class of verbs which form their present stem with "-sk-" is known as the "inceptive" or "incohative" class because some of them have the meaning of beginning or becoming. However, even our good friend Smythe admits, "But very few verbs have this meaning." The present tenses of the verbs listed above are "gignOskousi", "haliskei", "heuriskO", "thnEskei", and "paskhei". The last takes some manipulation: path + sk, the th + s = s, but the k takes the aspiration of the th, giving kh.
hespes. Yet another lovely example of vowel grade change. The stem is "sep-". The e-grade present stem is "hep-", since its initial s has turned into an h. The zero-grade aorist stem is "sp-". To this we add the augment and personal endings. The spiritus asper is probably on analogy with the present stem.
It disappears. Another example of vowel grade change, this time from e-grade in the present to zero grade in the second aorist. The second aorists are "elipon", "epithon", and "ephugon".
Reduplication in i. Take the first consonant in the stem, say, the d of "do-", add an i, and tack it on the front of the word. So, we get "didO-". Then add the usual personal endings. For "tithEmi", this should be "thithEmi". But, according to Grassmann's law, there cannot be aspirates in two successive syllables, so the first (or sometimes second) aspirate is dropped. So, "tithEmi". With "hestEka", there should be reduplication in s, so "sestEka". But, according to one sound rule, some initial s's turned into h's, so we get "hestEka". A good number of the so-called athematic or "-mi" verbs form their present tenses this way.
| Say you have a verb with a prepositional prefix, say, "apopheugeis". (No, not YOU. It's not that bad, really.) So. Where would you add the augment? | Ancient Greek-- The Second Aorist
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In front of the verb, after or replacing the last vowel in the preposition. So it would be "apephuges," which I sincerely hope isn't true. I mean, I'm sure the grammar is true, but I just hope that you're not outta here...
Imperfect (-on, -es, -e, -omen, -ete, -on). Given that the personal endings for the second aorist and the imperfect are indistinguishable, you must be on your guard to see whether the stem is the present stem or the aorist stem. How do you do that, you ask? Well, you have taken the rest of the quiz, haven't you? Read on...
Alogo. "Alogo" means horse. "Elafi" means deer, "skylos" means dog and "kamilopardalis" means giraffe.
Moon. "Selini" is the greek word for moon. The sun is "helios", star is "asteri" and planet is "planitis".
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