εἴθε

Forms

εἴθε (eíthe) ^[1] Epic and dialect αἴθε (aíthe); elided εἴθ’.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek εἰ (ei, “if”) + -θε (-the), with the dialect form αἰ (ai) behind αἴθε (aíthe), but the particle -θε has no clear etymology.^[4][5] Meillet compared the emphatic particles Sanskrit घ (gha) and Old Church Slavonic же (že), which would point to Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰe, but Beekes gives this with a question mark.^[4][5]

The Etymologicum Magnum derives it simply from the conditional particle.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on: in the Iliad a speaker wishes εἴθ’ ὣς ἡβώοιμι, “if only I were as young”, and in the Odyssey εἴθε οἱ αὐτῷ Ζεὺς ἀγαθὸν τελέσειεν, “may Zeus bring him good”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In classical Greek it introduces wishes with the optative, whether they can come true or not, and with a past tense of the indicative wishes about the past that can no longer come true: in Aeschylus a speaker cries “O earth, earth, would you had received me!”^[8][2] With ὤφελον (ṓphelon) and the infinitive it means “if only I had…” (Homer, tragedy, Aristophanes, Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes).^[2] It was strengthened with γάρ (gár).^[8]

The Septuagint has it in Job and in the books of Maccabees, there with a past tense of the indicative and with the infinitive.^[9] Later writers also use it with the infinitive alone or with ὡς (hōs), and a 6th-century AD papyrus speaks of “my wife, would she had never been joined to me”.^[8]

Medieval vernacular Greek kept it as είθε (íthe) or έθε (éthe), “would that”.^[10] In Modern Greek είθε (íthe) introduces a formal wish with να (na), and can stand alone as a doubtful “let's hope so”.^[11][12]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it with the optative.^[7][13]
• 6th century BC – Theognis uses it in a prayer to Zeus.^[8]
• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it with the aorist indicative for a wish about the past.^[8]
• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon uses it in the same way.^[8]
• 1st century AD – Pseudo-Phocylides uses it with the infinitive.^[8]
• 6th century AD – A papyrus uses it with ὡς (hōs) in a wish about the past.^[8]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts have it in the forms είθε (íthe) and έθε (éthe).^[10]
• Modern Greek – The word introduces a formal wish.^[11]

Meanings

Particle

1. Introducing a wish: would that, if only; with the optative, of the present or future.^[2][8][7]
2. With a past tense of the indicative, for a wish that can no longer come true.^[8][2][9]
3. With ὤφελον (ṓphelon) and the infinitive: if only I had (done something).^[2]
4. (Koine) With the infinitive alone.^[8][9]

Related words

• αἴθε (aíthe)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ Gaisford, Thomas, ed. (1848), Etymologicum Magnum, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
9. ^ a b c Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
13. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux