ναί

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See also: ναι and 'ναι

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Variant of νή (nḗ, “yea”).

Pronunciation

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

Adverb

ναί • (naí)

(used to express strong affirmation) yea, verily
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.286
- 490 BCE – 430 BCE, Empedocles, Collected Works 76.2
- 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Theocritus, Collected Works 27.27
- 300 BCE – 250 BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.151
- 125 CE – 200 CE, Lucian, Astrology 14
- 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1445
1. (in oaths)
  - 422 BCE, Aristophanes, The Wasps 1438
  - 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Hellenica 4.4.10
  - 431 BCE, Euripides, Medea 1277
(in answers) yes
- 472 BCE, Aeschylus, The Persians 738
- 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 193A
- 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 448B
- 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 1468
- 70 CE – 110 CE, The Gospel of Matthew 5:37
1. (with ἀλλά (allá, “but”) or similar words, as a qualified assent) yes...but
  - 389 BCE – 314 BCE, Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon 84
  - 360 BCE, Plato, The Sophist 226E
  - 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 415E

Antonyms

οὐ (ou)

Descendants

Greek: ναι (nai)

References

“ναί”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ναί”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“ναί”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
ναί in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
ναί in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“ναί”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G3483 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.
- assuredly idem, page 48.
- certainly idem, page 122.
- even idem, page 284.
- yes idem, page 996.

^ https://archive.org/stream/etymagraecaetymo00wharuoft#page/90/mode/2up

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