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The Etymology of Greek ὁ ἡ τὸ δϵῖνα

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Gordon M. Messing
Gordon M. Messing*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

The indefinite pronoun, ὁ ἡ τὸ δϵῖνα ‘so-and-so’, like other Greek pronominal stems (cf. αὐτvός, ἐκϵῖνος) is difficult to analyze, and even more difficult to etymologize. It has been much discussed in the literature and a number of ingenious suggestions have been made; nonetheless, as discerning a judge as Gustav Meyer noted long ago that the word was ‘in Ursprung and Bildung dunkel’ and concluded his analysis with a non-committal ‘non liquet’.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 23 , Issue 3: July-September , September 1947, pp. 207 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © 1947 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Griech. Gr.3 531 (Leipzig, 1896).

2 E.g. Boisacq, Dict. étym.3 s.v. (Heidelberg, 1938).

3 Der Atticismus 4.147 (Stuttgart, 1896).

4 See Index Demosthenicus: composuit Sigmundus Preuss (Leipzig, 1892).

5 Peace of Aristophanes; London, 1913. Cobet (Var. Lect. 108) explained τὸ δϵῖνα. similarly: ‘ita loquuntur, quibus subito in mentem venit aliquid rogare aut monere, quod in rem praesentem faciat, cuius adhuc fuerint immemores.‘

6 KZ 8.344.

7 Studien 1.46 ff. (not available to me except in summary).

8 Cf. Carl D. Buck, Comp. Gr. of Gk. and Lat. 227 (Chicago, 1937).

9 Über den demonstrativen Pronominalstamm no- ne- und Verwandtes, IF 2.199–260 (1893).

10 Das Pronomen enos, onos in den indogermanischen Sprachen, KZ 31.472–9.

11 Die Demonstrativpronomina der indogermanischen Sprachen 90 (Abh. d. philol.-hist. Klasse d. Kgl. Sächs. Ges. d. Wissensch., Vol. 22, No. 6; Leipzig, 1904).

12 Op.cit. s.v.

13 Also accepted tentatively by Hirt, Handbuch der gr. Laut- und Foremenlehre2 435 (Heidelberg, 1912), who calls the explanation ‘unsicher’.

14 Op.cit. 224. I do not know if this argument has had other exponents.

15 There are, for instance, 35 examples of the single form δϵινά listed in Henry Dunbar, A Complete Concordance to the Comedies and Fragments of Aristophanes (Oxford, 1883).

16 So always in Aristophanes: Frogs 144, 688; Wasps 1042. Note that variations of accent are common in this base: δϵιμός ‘fear’, but (personified) Δϵῖμος. Note also the similar development of new affective meaning in the isolated δϵίνωμα (τῶν κριτῶν) of Philodemus de Rhetor., if Herwerden is correct in translating ‘iudicum exasperatio’ (Lex. Graec. Suppl.2 s.v. (Lugduni Batavorum, 1910)). But Liddell and Scott (s.v.) translate by ‘exaggerated view’.

17 There is no occurrence in the (formal) language of the Attic inscriptions—at least no listing in Meisterhans, Gramm. der attischen Inschriften3 (Berlin, 1900).

18 Grammaire du grec moderne (langue parlée)3 130 (Paris, 1917).