ὅταν

See also: όταν and OTAN

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Univerbation of ὅτ’ (hót’, “when”) +‎ ᾰ̓́ν (ắn, modal particle).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /hó.tan/ → /ˈo.tan/ → /ˈo.tan/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /hó.tan/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈ(h)o.tan/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈo.tan/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈo.tan/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈo.tan/

Conjunction

ὅτᾰν • (hótăn)

1. (with a conditional force, about events likely to recur) whenever; when
   • c. 385 BCE, Plato, Meno 88a:

     Σωκράτης   σκόπει δή, ὅταν τί ἑκάστου τούτων ἡγῆται, ὠφελεῖ ἡμᾶς, καὶ ὅταν τί, βλάπτει.

     Sōkrátēs   skópei dḗ, hótan tí hekástou toútōn hēgêtai, ōpheleî hēmâs, kaì hótan tí, bláptei.

     Socrates: Now look at what, when it guides each of these things, benefits us, and what, when it [guides things], harms [us].

   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.519
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.6
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.397
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.567
   • c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.225
   • 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 301
   • 375 BCE, Plato, The Republic 565A

Usage notes

• Like ἐᾱ́ν (eā́n), only used with the subjunctive.

Descendants

• Coptic: ϩⲟⲧⲁⲛ (hotan)
• Greek: όταν (ótan)

Further reading

• “ὅταν”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ὅταν”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ὅταν”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ὅταν in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “ὅταν”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3752 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.
  • crowning idem, page 187.
  • whenever, whensoever idem, page 975.