οὐ

See also: ου, -ου, -ού, οὔ, οὖ, οὗ, Ȣ, ᴕ, Appendix:Variations of "ou", and Appendix:Variations of "oy"

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• οὐκ (ouk) — before vowel with smooth breathing
• οὐχ (oukh) — before vowel with rough breathing
• οὔ (oú) — pausal form
• οὐχί (oukhí) — Epic, Attic
• οὐκί (oukí) — Epic, Ionic

Etymology

Possibly οὐκί (oukí, “not so, never”), from Proto-Hellenic *oyuki, from Proto-Indo-European *(ne) h₂óyu kʷíd (“(not) ever, (not) on your life”). Compare Sanskrit उद् (ud), Gothic 𐌿𐌳 (ud), Old Armenian ոչ (očʻ) and Albanian as.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /uː/ → /u/ → /u/

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

Particle

οὐ • (ou) (negative particle)

1. not (indicates negation)

Usage notes

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

• Byzantine Greek: ὄχι (ókhi), ὤχι (ṓkhi)
  • Greek: όχι (óchi)
  • Mariupol Greek: йох (jox)

Further reading

• “οὐ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “οὐ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “οὐ”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• οὐ in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• οὐ in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “οὐ”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G3756 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.
  • nay idem, page 553.
  • no idem, page 559.
  • not idem, page 562.
  • tear idem, page 859.