πρόβλημα

Ancient Greek

From Proto-Hellenic *prógʷlāmə. Equivalent to προβάλλω (probállō, “I throw before”) +‎ -μᾰ (-ma).

πρόβλημᾰ • (próblēma) n (genitive προβλήμᾰτος); third declension

anything thrown forward or projecting
- 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Ajax 1219
1. a hindrance, obstacle
  - 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Collected Works 582.10
anything put before one as a defense, bulwark, barrier, screen, shield, wall
- 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 7.70
1. (with genitive) a defense against a thing
  - 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 676
anything put forward as an excuse or screen
- 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes 1122.21
that which is proposed as a task, business
- 458 BCE, Euripides, Electra 985
1. (geometry) problem
  - 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 530
2. (Aristotelian logic) a question as to whether a statement is so or not
  - 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Topics 1.4,3
3. a problem, difficulty
  - 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 28.11,9

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ πρόβλημᾰ tò próblēma	τὼ προβλήμᾰτε tṑ problḗmate	τᾰ̀ προβλήμᾰτᾰ tà problḗmata
Genitive	τοῦ προβλήμᾰτος toû problḗmatos	τοῖν προβλημᾰ́τοιν toîn problēmátoin	τῶν προβλημᾰ́των tôn problēmátōn
Dative	τῷ προβλήμᾰτῐ tôi problḗmati	τοῖν προβλημᾰ́τοιν toîn problēmátoin	τοῖς προβλήμᾰσῐ / προβλήμᾰσῐν toîs problḗmasi(n)
Accusative	τὸ πρόβλημᾰ tò próblēma	τὼ προβλήμᾰτε tṑ problḗmate	τᾰ̀ προβλήμᾰτᾰ tà problḗmata
Vocative	πρόβλημᾰ próblēma	προβλήμᾰτε problḗmate	προβλήμᾰτᾰ problḗmata
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

“πρόβλημα”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“πρόβλημα”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
πρόβλημα in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
πρόβλημα in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- barrier idem, page 63.
- blind idem, page 83.
- bulwark idem, page 103.
- cover idem, page 180.
- defence idem, page 204.
- pretence idem, page 638.
- pretext idem, page 638.
- problem idem, page 643.
- protection idem, page 653.
- safe-guard idem, page 730.
- screen idem, page 742.
- sham idem, page 761.
- shelter idem, page 764.
LSJ 8th edition

Learnedly, from Ancient Greek πρόβλημᾰ (próblēma). For sense "difficulty", semantic loan from French problème or English problem.^[1]

πρόβλημα • (próvlima) n (plural προβλήματα)

^ πρόβλημα, in Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής , Triantafyllidis Foundation, 1998 at the Centre for the Greek language