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μή. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
μή, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
μή in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
μή you have here. The definition of the word
μή will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
μή, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Ancient Greek
Etymology
From Proto-Hellenic *mḗ, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁ (prohibitive particle). Cognate with Old Armenian մի (mi), Sanskrit मा (mā), Old Persian 𐎶𐎠 (m-a /mā/), and Albanian mos.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /mɛ̌ː/ → /mi/ → /mi/
Particle
μή • (mḗ) (negative particle)
- not (used in clauses expressing will or thought)
- (with an imperative or subjunctive in negative commands)
- (with an optative or past indicative, expressing a negative wish)
- (in a question expecting a negative answer)
- (in dependent clauses)
- (with participle representing conditional clause)
- (in warnings or statements of fear)
- (in independent clauses) that ... not; that
386 BCE – 367 BCE,
Plato,
Meno 89c:
- Σωκράτης ἀλλὰ μὴ τοῦτο οὐ καλῶς ὡμολογήσαμεν.
- Sōkrátēs […] allà mḕ toûto ou kalôs hōmologḗsamen.
- Socrates: But that we didn't agree on this incorrectly.
or that we agreed .
- (introducing indirect statement after verb of fearing or apprehension) that
Usage notes
μή is the negative of thought or wish, but οὐ (ou) of objective statements of fact.
Derived terms
References
Further reading
- “μή”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “μή”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “μή”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
- μή 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
- μή in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
- “μή”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
- G3361 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.