οὐκέτι

Forms

οὐκέτῐ (oukéti) ^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek οὐκ (ouk, “not”) + ἔτι (éti, “still, yet”), and editions also print it divided.^[1][2][3] It is the negative of the same adverb that μηκέτι (mēkéti) is with μή (mḗ).^[3]

The adverb continues Proto-Indo-European *h₁éti, perhaps the locative of a root noun, and is cognate with Sanskrit अति (áti), Latin et (“and”) and Old Church Slavonic отъ (otŭ).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses it, often from the Iliad on, of what has stopped in the present or the past: “no more, no longer”.^[3][2][5]

Semantic evolution

Hesiod, Herodotus and the Attic writers use it often; it is the opposite of οὔπω (oúpō), “not yet”, and the parts are sometimes reversed, as in Sophocles' ἔτ’ οὐκ.^[2]

The Septuagint has it more than a hundred times.^[6] In the New Testament it means “no longer” or “never again”, as in Paul's words that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more, and it can mark a logical inference, “then it is not”, a use found already in Melissus and Empedocles.^[7] Hesychius glosses it simply as “not”.^[8] It was borrowed into the Sahidic dialect as Coptic ⲟⲩⲕⲉⲧⲓ (ouketi).^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it for “no longer”.^[3][2]
• 5th century BC – Melissus uses it in a logical inference, “then it is not”.^[7]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles writes the two parts in reverse order.^[2]
• 1st century AD – Paul writes that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more.^[7]
• 5th century AD (probably) – Hesychius glosses it as “not”.^[8]
• 9th century AD – A Sahidic manuscript of about 800 has the borrowed Coptic ⲟⲩⲕⲉⲧⲉⲓ (ouketei).^[9]

Meanings

Adverb

1. No longer, no more, no further.^[2][3][7]
2. Not now, opposed to οὔπω (oúpō), “not yet”.^[2]
3. Never again; with the present, of something about to stop.^[7]
4. Marking a logical inference: then not, accordingly not.^[7]

Related words

• ἔτι (éti)
• οὐ (ou)
• μηκέτι (mēkéti)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
4. ^ 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. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
6. ^ Lust, Johan; Eynikel, Erik; Hauspie, Katrin (2003), Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint, rev. ed., Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft
7. ^ a b c d e f Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
8. ^ a b Hesychius of Alexandria, Lexicon, ed. Kurt Latte (Α–Ο, Copenhagen 1953–1966) and Moritz Schmidt (Π–Ω, Jena 1858–1868)
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig