ναί

See also: ναι and 'ναι

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Variant of νή (nḗ, “yea”).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /nǎi̯/ → /nɛ/ → /ne/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /nǎi̯/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /nɛ/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /nɛ/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ne/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ne/

Adverb

ναί • (naí)

1. (used to express strong affirmation) yea, verily
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.286
   • 490 BCE – 430 BCE, Empedocles, Collected Works 76.2
   • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Theocritus, Collected Works 27.27
   • 300 BCE – 250 BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.151
   • 125 CE – 200 CE, Lucian, Astrology 14
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1445
   1. (in oaths)
      • 422 BCE, Aristophanes, The Wasps 1438
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Hellenica 4.4.10
      • 431 BCE, Euripides, Medea 1277
2. (in answers) yes
   • 472 BCE, Aeschylus, The Persians 738
   • 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 193A
   • 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 448B
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 1468
   • 70 CE – 110 CE, The Gospel of Matthew 5:37
   1. (with ἀλλά (allá, “but”) or similar words, as a qualified assent) yes...but
      • 389 BCE – 314 BCE, Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon 84
      • 360 BCE, Plato, The Sophist 226E
      • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 415E

Antonyms

• οὐ (ou)

Descendants

• Greek: ναι (nai)

Further reading

• “ναί”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ναί”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ναί”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ναί in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ναί in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “ναί”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3483 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.
  • assuredly idem, page 48.
  • certainly idem, page 122.
  • even idem, page 284.
  • yes idem, page 996.