οὐδέ

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

οὐδ’ (oud’) — apocopic

Etymology

From οὐ (ou, “not”) + δέ (dé, “but”).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /uː.dé/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /uˈde/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /uˈðe/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /uˈðe/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /uˈðe/

Conjunction

οὐδέ • (oudé)

(mostly answering to μέν (mén)) but not
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.138
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 24.418
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.21
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 24.25
(more often) and not, nor
1. (without a negative preceding)
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 10.375
  - 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 324
  - 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 756
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.97
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.95
  - 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Pr.716
  - 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 2
  - 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 39
2. (with a simple negative preceding)
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 10.379
  - 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 22.226
  - 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 691
  - 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.215
  - 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.55
  - 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Androtion 4

Adverb

οὐδέ • (oudé)

not even, not at all
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.386
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.354
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 20.27
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 14.141, (compare Odyssey 21.288)
- 388 BCE, Aristophanes, Plutus 137–138
- 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 2.3.10
- 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.56
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 7.263
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.351
- 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Phaedo 97A
- 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 499A
- 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 3.3.50
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.374
- 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 8.32

Usage notes

When οὐδέ (oudé) is repeated at the beginning of two clauses, the first is often adverbial and the second is a conjunction. It may also follow οὔτε (oúte), as an anacoluthon.

Descendants

→ Coptic: ⲟⲩⲇⲉ (oude)

References

“οὐδέ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“οὐδέ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“οὐδέ”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
οὐδέ in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
οὐδέ in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
“οὐδέ”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G3761 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.
- even idem, page 284.
- neither . . . nor idem, page 555.
- not idem, page 562.