πῶς

Forms

πῶς (pôs) ^[1] Ionic κῶς (kôs) (Herodotus and others).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a frozen ablative of the pronominal stem πο- (po-), Ionic κο- (ko-), with the adverb ending -ως (-ōs),^[2][4][1] from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (“who, which”).^[2] The same stem is in πόθεν (póthen), and the formation is that of ὡς (hōs).^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, asking “how?”, and often, in the Iliad, with displeasure or disbelief: “how can that be?”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Classical Greek built many idioms on it: πῶς γάρ, “how could it be?”, a strong denial, πῶς γὰρ οὔ and πῶς δ' οὔ, “of course”, and πῶς φῄς, “what do you mean?”.^[3][5] In tragedy πῶς ἄν with the optative expresses a wish, often a hopeless one, and Aristophanes uses it of price, “how much?”.^[3][5] The parenthetic πῶς δοκεῖς, “how do you think?”, came to mean simply “remarkably”.^[3][5]

The New Testament uses it in direct and indirect questions, and also in exclamations, “how …!”.^[6][5] It survives as Modern Greek πώς (pós), “how?”; the unaccented conjunction πως (pos), “that”, also comes from it, a development that began in the Hellenistic period.^[7]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it to ask how, often in surprise or reproach.^[3][5]
• 5th century BC – Sophocles and Euripides use πῶς ἄν with the optative to express a wish.^[3][5]
• 5th–4th century BC – Aristophanes asks “how much?” with it in buying and selling.^[3][5]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it in exclamations.^[5][6]
• Modern Greek – πώς (pós) still means “how?”, and πως (pos) has become a conjunction meaning “that”.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. How? in what way? by what means? (in direct and indirect questions).^[3][5][6]
2. Expressing surprise, disbelief or displeasure: how can it be that? why? πῶς φῄς, “what do you mean?”.^[3][5]
3. In what state? how are things? (with the verb “to be” or ἔχω, sometimes with a genitive).^[5][3]
4. At what price? (with verbs of buying and selling).^[3][5]
5. With the optative, πῶς ἄν: expressing a wish, “if only…!”.^[3][5]
6. In elliptical replies: πῶς γάρ, “how could it be?” (denial), and πῶς γὰρ οὔ or πῶς δ' οὔ, “of course”.^[3][5]
7. (New Testament) In exclamations: how …!^[5][6]

Related words

• πως (pōs)
• πόθεν (póthen)
• ποῦ (poû)

Usage notes

The unaccented enclitic πως (pōs), “somehow, in some way”, is the indefinite counterpart.^[2][4]

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 c d e f g h i j k l m n Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki