πρωΐ

Forms

πρωῐ̈́ (prōḯ) ^[1] Attic πρῴ, though the manuscripts often write πρῶϊ or πρῷ.^[2][3] Comparative πρωϊαίτερον (or πρῳαίτερον), superlative πρωϊαίτατα; the forms πρωΐτερον and πρωΐτατα are rarer.^[2][4]

Etymology

Beekes and Wiktionary derive it from Ancient Greek *πρώ (*prṓ, “early”), an unattested adverb, with the ending of old locative adverbs such as ἦρι (êri), πέρυσι (périsi) and ἀντί (antí).^[4][1] The same adverb lies behind πρώην (prṓēn, “lately; the day before yesterday”).^[4][5] It is confirmed by Old High German fruo (“early”), Latin prō (“for, before”) and Avestan frā (“forward”), and less directly by Sanskrit प्रातर् (prātár, “early in the morning”).^[4] Beekes reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *proH (“early, in the morning”), perhaps an old instrumental *pro-h₁ of the word that gave πρό (pró).^[4][1]

Ancient writers derived it from πρόειμι (próeimi, “to go forward”), as the time when people set out: Orion's etymological lexicon (5th century AD) gives this explanation.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on: the Iliad has the phrase πρωῒ ὑπηοῖοι, “early at dawn”.^[7][2] Hesiod uses it in the Works and Days for “betimes”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it meant “early in the day” and also, more generally, early in a season, as in the Hippocratic phrase “early in the spring”.^[2][3] It could also mean “too early, too soon”: Thucydides says the Peloponnesians invaded Attica too early, while the corn was still green.^[2] Theophrastus defined the time it names as the forenoon, between sunrise and midday.^[2]

In the Septuagint and the New Testament it is used with the article as a noun, “the morning”, and in phrases such as “at daybreak” and “from morning till evening”; in Mark it names the last watch of the night.^[2][8] From it came πρώϊμος (prṓïmos, “early”) and the Hellenistic πρωϊνός (prōïnós).^[4][9]

Medieval Greek used the adverb as a noun, and it survives as Modern Greek πρωί (proí, “morning”), a neuter noun inherited from the Hellenistic use with the article.^[10][11][9]

Timeline

• 700s BC – The Iliad uses it for “early in the morning”.^[7][12]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it for “betimes”.^[2][12]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it with the genitive of the day,^[2] and Thucydides and the tragedians use it for “too early”.^[2][3]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus defines it as the forenoon.^[2]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the morning and for the last watch of the night.^[8][13]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular Greek uses it as a noun, “morning”.^[10]
• Modern Greek – It survives as the noun πρωί (proí), “morning”.^[11][9]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Early in the day, in the morning; with a genitive, early in (the day).^[2][3]
2. Early in the year or season.^[2][3]
3. Too early, too soon.^[2][3]
4. (Koine) With the article, as a noun: the morning; ἅμα πρωΐ, at daybreak.^[2][8]
5. (New Testament) The last watch of the night, before dawn.^[8]

Word family

• πρώϊμος (prṓïmos)

Related words

• πρό (pró)
• πρός (prós)
• πρώην (prṓēn)
• Latin prō

Usage notes

Its opposite is ὀψέ (opsé, “late”).^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ 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
6. ^ Etygram: ancient etymologies of Greek words, CEPAM, Université Côte d'Azur, http://appsweb-cepam.unice.fr/etygram
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b c d 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
9. ^ a b c Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
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. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
13. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
14. ^ Charbonnet, André (2025), Chæréphon, v4.7: supplement to Bailly from papyri, inscriptions and recent lexica