μήποτε

Ancient Greek

Etymology

From μή (mḗ, “not”) + ποτέ (poté, “ever, at some time”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /mɛ̌ː.po.te/ → /ˈmi.po.te/ → /ˈmi.po.te/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /mɛ̌ː.po.te/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈme̝.po.te/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.po.te/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.po.te/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈmi.po.te/

Adverb

μήποτε • (mḗpote)

1. never, on no account
   • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 205
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Eumenides 882
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers 182
   • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Eumenides 977
   • 470 BCE, Aeschylus, The Suppliants 617
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.133
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.275
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.455
   • 342 BCE – 290 BCE, Menander, The Girl from Samos 97
   • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 86
   1. (in prohibition or strong denial, with aorist subjunctive)
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.81
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 11.441
   2. (Koine) perhaps
      • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1172A.33
      • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Septuagint, Genesis 24.5
      • 700 BCE – 600 BCE, Aristeas, Collected Works 15
      • 280 BCE – 220 BCE, Philo of Byzantium, Compendium of Mechanics 1.13
      • 108 CE, Arrian, Discourses of Epictetus 3.22.80
      • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 2.106D
      • 50 CE – 250 CE, Apollonius Dyscolus, On Pronouns 18.4

Conjunction

μήποτε • (mḗpote)

1. that at not time, lest ever
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 21.324
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.77
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 8.53

References

• “μήποτε”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “μήποτε”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “μήποτε”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• μήποτε in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “μήποτε”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3379 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • never idem, page 556.