ἤδη

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From ἦ (ê, “truly”) + δή (dḗ, “now”).

Pronunciation

Adverb

ἤδη • (ḗdē)

1. (of the immediate past) by this time, before this, already
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 7.282
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 7.293
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.89
   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 312
   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 354
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 726
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 1402
   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 7.33
   • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Protagoras 309D
   1. (of a local relation)
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.5
      • 428 BCE, Euripides, Hippolytus 1200
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.95
2. (of the immediate future) forthwith, straightway
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 3.98
   • 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 486E
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 24.635
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 16.844
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Women of Trachis 624
   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 466
   • 411 BCE, Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 655
3. (in opposition to future or past) now, presently
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 614
   • 423 BCE, Euripides, The Suppliants 551
   • 405 BCE, Aristophanes, The Frogs 527
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Aristocrates 134
   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 7.7.24
4. (of logical proximity)
   • 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 201E
   • 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 202B
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 398C
5. (with a comparative or superlative)
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 8.106
   • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 6.31
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.148
6. (joined with other temporal words)
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1578
   • 442 BCE, Sophocles, Antigone 801
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.260
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Eumenides 50
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 1142
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 346
   • 446 BCE – 411 BCE, Eupolis, Πολ. 9
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 493D
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 510
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 417B
   • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 911
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.260
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 22.52
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 440
   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 454
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 507A
   • 343 BCE, Demosthenes, On the False Embassy 52

Descendants

• Greek: ήδη (ídi, “already”)

References

• “ἤδη”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἤδη”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ἤδη”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἤδη in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἤδη in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “ἤδη”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G2235 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.
  • already idem, page 25.
  • before idem, page 69.
  • ere idem, page 281.
  • now idem, page 562.
  • this idem, page 867.