πρόβατον

Ancient Greek

FWOTD – 3 October 2018

Etymology

From προβαίνω (probaínō, “to go on”) + -τος (-tos).

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /pró.ba.ton/ → /ˈpro.βa.ton/ → /ˈpro.va.ton/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /pró.ba.ton/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈpro.ba.ton/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈpro.βa.ton/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈpro.va.ton/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈpro.va.ton/

Noun

πρόβατον • (próbaton) n (genitive προβάτου); second declension

1. (mostly in plural)
   1. (Ionic, Doric) cattle, flocks, herds
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 2.41
      • 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, On Joints 8
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 4.61
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 14.124
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 23.550
      • 7th–6th centuries BC, Homeric Hymn to Hermes 571
      • 750 BCE – 650 BCE, Hesiod, Works and Days 558
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.203
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.133
   2. (Attic, Koine) sheep

      Synonym: οἶς (oîs), ἀρήν (arḗn)

      • 414 BCE, Aristophanes, The Birds 714
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 2.14
   3. slaughtered animals, animals for sacrifices
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 6.56
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.207
   4. (proverbial) stupid, lazy people
      • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 1203
      • 422 BCE, Aristophanes, The Wasps 32
      • 155 CE – 235 CE, Cassius Dio, Collected Works 59.8
      • 200 BCE – 118 BCE, Polybius, The Histories 5.35.13
2. a kind of marine fish
   • Oppian, Halieutica 1.146
   • Oppian, Halieutica 3.139
   • 175 CE – 235 CE, Claudius Aelianus, On the Nature of Animals 9.38

Inflection

Second declension of τὸ πρόβατον; τοῦ προβάτου (Attic)

Case / #	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	τὸ πρόβατον tò próbaton	τὼ προβάτω tṑ probátō	τᾰ̀ πρόβατᾰ tà próbata
Genitive	τοῦ προβάτου toû probátou	τοῖν προβάτοιν toîn probátoin	τῶν προβάτων tôn probátōn
Dative	τῷ προβάτῳ tôi probátōi	τοῖν προβάτοιν toîn probátoin	τοῖς προβάτοις toîs probátois
Accusative	τὸ πρόβατον tò próbaton	τὼ προβάτω tṑ probátō	τᾰ̀ πρόβατᾰ tà próbata
Vocative	πρόβατον próbaton	προβάτω probátō	πρόβατᾰ próbata
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

Coordinate terms

• οἶς (oîs)
• ἀρήν (arḗn)
• κριός (kriós)
• ἀμνός (amnós)

Descendants

• Greek: πρόβατο (próvato)
• Mariupol Greek: про́вату (próvatu)

Further reading

• “πρόβατον”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “πρόβατον”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “πρόβατον”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• πρόβατον in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• “πρόβατον”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G4263 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, page 764
• “πρόβατον”, in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, 2011