ποῖος

Forms

ποῖος (poîos) m (feminine ποίᾱ, neuter ποῖον)^[1] Ionic κοῖος.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who?”), the interrogative stem, with the suffix seen in τοῖος (toîos) and οἷος (hoîos).^[3][1][4] The Ionic form is κοῖος (koîos).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Homer it mostly expresses surprise or anger: “what a word you have spoken!” (Iliad 1.552); the Odyssey also uses it in simple questions.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In comedy and in Plato's dialogues a speaker repeats a word just used with ποῖος, in scornful surprise.^[2][5] With the article it asks which of things already mentioned.^[5][2] In the New Testament it can mean “whose?”.^[5][6]

Medieval Greek pronounced it with synizesis, as ποιος (piós).^[7][8] In Modern Greek ποιος (pios) means “who? which?”.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it in angry exclamations.^[2][5]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses the Ionic form κοῖος (koîos).^[2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes uses it to throw back a word with scorn.^[2][5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it in questions such as “by what law?”.^[6]
• Modern Greek – ποιος (pios) is the usual word for “who?”.^[8]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. Of what kind? what sort of?^[2][5]
2. Which? what?, especially of place or time.^[5]
3. In exclamations, expressing surprise or anger: what!^[2][5]
4. Repeating another speaker's word in scorn: what do you mean by...?^[2][5]
5. (New Testament) Whose?^[5]

Word family

• ὁποῖος (hopoîos)
• ποιότης (poiótēs)

Related words

• ποιός (poiós)
• τοῖος (toîos)
• οἷος (hoîos)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c 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
4. ^ Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας