οὐ

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Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

Etymology

Possibly οὐκί (oukí, not so, never), from Proto-Hellenic *oyuki, from Proto-Indo-European *(ne) h₂óyu kʷíd ((not) ever, (not) on your life).[1][2] Compare Sanskrit उद् (ud), Gothic 𐌿𐌳 (ud), Old Armenian ոչ (očʻ) and Albanian as.

Pronunciation

 

Particle

οὐ (ou) (negative particle)

  1. not (indicates negation)

Usage notes

οὐ is the indicative negator (i.e. of facts, statements), where μή (mḗ) is the subjunctive negator (i.e. of will, thought). It usually immediately precedes the word (most often a verb) which it negates. Negative concord (also known as double negatives) is frequent in Ancient Greek.

Descendants

  • Byzantine Greek: ὄχι (ókhi), ὤχι (ṓkhi)

References

  1. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “οὐ”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 1123
  2. ^ Martirosyan, Hrach (2010) “očʿ”, in Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Inherited Lexicon (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 8), Leiden and Boston: Brill, page 531

Further reading