οὐ

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Ancient Greek

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Particle

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οὐ (ou) (negative particle)

  1. not (indicates negation)

Usage notes

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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

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

References

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  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

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