ποῖ

Forms

ποῖ (poî) ^[1]

Etymology

It is a locative form inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos (“who, which”), the interrogative stem πο- with the locative ending -ι.^[2][1] The same stem gives ποῦ (poû, “where”), πόθεν (póthen, “from where”) and ποῖος (poîos).^[2] Ionic has κο- in these words.^[2] Cognate with Latin quod (“what”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Aeschylus, as an interrogative meaning “whither?”, to what place.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

It is common in tragedy, comedy and Attic prose.^[4] With a genitive it asks “to what point of”: ποῖ γῆς “to what place on earth?”, and ποῖ φρενῶν “to what point of thought?”.^[4] It could also ask “to what end?” and, in Aristophanes, “how long?”.^[4]

The grammarians distinguished it from ποῦ: ποῖ and πῇ ask where to, ποῦ where at, so “ποῦ ἀπέρχῃ;” for “where are you going?” was counted a mistake.^[6]

Timeline

• 6th–5th century BC – Aeschylus uses it in questions such as “to what land?”.^[3][4][5]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles uses it with a genitive of thought.^[4][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it for “how long?”.^[4][5]
• 1st–2nd century AD – The First Epistle of Clement uses it.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (interrogative) Whither?, to what place?^[4][7]
2. (with a genitive) To what point of?: ποῖ γῆς “to what place on earth?”.^[4]
3. To what end?^[4]
4. How long?^[4]

Related words

• ποῦ (poû)
• πόθεν (póthen)
• πῇ (pēî)
• πόσε (póse)

Usage notes

Ammonius distinguishes ποῖ and πῇ, “to where”, from ποῦ, “where”, and the Doric adverbs of place in the same way.^[6] The unaccented enclitic ποι means “somewhere, to some place”.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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
3. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
6. ^ a b [Ammonius], De adfinium vocabulorum differentia, ed. K. Nickau (Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
7. ^ a b 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