πλεῖστος

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From the root of πολύς (polús, “much, many”) +‎ -ιστος (-istos, superlative suffix).

Pronunciation

Adjective

πλεῖστος • (pleîstos)

1. (of number, also of size, extent, strength, etc.) most, very much
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 15.616
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 16.377
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.697
   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Fr. 33.1
   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 478
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Protagoras 342A
   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Hellenica 7.1.23
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 7.220
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 5.126
   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.36
   1. (with the article, like οἱ πολλοί) the greatest number, the greatest part of..
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.90
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 718A
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.5
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.3
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.34
      • 423 BCE, Euripides, The Suppliants 408
2. (adverbial, like μάλιστα) most
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 19.287
   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Theogony 231
   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 2.2.12
   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 631
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 743
   • 438 BCE, Euripides, Alcestis 790
   • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Pythian Ode 9.97
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 720
   • 390 BCE, Plato, Hippias Major 281B
   1. (with the article) for the most part
      • 422 BCE, Aristophanes, The Wasps 260
      • 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Critias 118C
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, History of Animals 563A.31
      • 129 CE – 216 CE, Galen, Collected Works 17.855
      • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Epidemics 6.1.10
3. (with prepositions)
   1. (διά) furthest off
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.115
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.11
   2. (εἰς) most
      • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 739
   3. (ἐπί) over the greatest distance, to the greatest extent
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 6.127
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.138
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.2
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 4.14
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 720D
   4. (κατά)
      • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 11.4.7
   5. (περί)

Declension

Related terms

• πᾰ́μπλειστος (pámpleistos, “in large quantity, number”)
• πλειστᾰ́κις (pleistákis, “mostly, very often”, adverb)
• πλείσταρχος (pleístarkhos, “holding widest sway”)
• πλειστᾰχόθεν (pleistakhóthen, “from most or many places”, adverb)
• πλειστήρης (pleistḗrēs, “manifold, all the whole”)
• πλειστηριᾰ́ζω (pleistēriázō, “raise the price”)
• πλειστηριᾰσμός (pleistēriasmós, “increase of price”) (Hellenistic Koine)
• πλειστηρῐ́ζομαι (pleistērízomai, “accuse as chief cause”)
• πλειστοβολέω (pleistoboléō, “throw highest at dice”)
• πλειστοβολίνδα f (pleistobolínda, “dice-playing”)
• πλειστόβολος (pleistóbolos, “throwing high”)
• πλειστοβόλος (pleistobólos, “throwing the most”)
• πλειστοδυναμέω (pleistodunaméō, “be dominant, prevail”)
• πλειστοφόρος (pleistophóros, “bearing most”)
• πλειστογονέω (pleistogonéō, “produce many offsprings”)
• πλειστολόγως (pleistológōs, “in various ways”, adverb)
• πλειστολόχειᾰ f (pleistolókheia, “small birthwort, Aristolochia Plistolochia”)
• πλειστόμβροτος (pleistómbrotos, “crowded with people”)
• πλειστονῑ́κης (pleistonī́kēs, “victor in many contests”)
• Πλειστός m (Pleistós, “the river Plistus”)
• πλειστοτόκος (pleistotókos, “producing most offspring”)

Descendants

• Greek: πλείστος (pleístos)

References

• “πλεῖστος”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “πλεῖστος”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “πλεῖστος”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• πλεῖστος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• πλεῖστος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “πλεῖστος”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G4118 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.
  • most idem, page 542.