τις

Forms

τῐς (tis) m or f (neuter τῐ)^[1] Thessalian κις (kis), Arcadian and Cypriot σις (sis), Elean and later Laconian τιρ (tir).^[2][3] Genitive also Ionic τεο, τευ and Attic του, dative Ionic τεῳ and Attic τῳ; the Attic plural ἄττα (Ionic ἄσσα) stands beside τινά.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷís (“who; someone”), the Indo-European interrogative and indefinite pronoun.^[2][1] The enclitic pronoun is the unaccented use of the same pronoun as the interrogative τίς (tís) “who?”: the accented form asks, the unaccented one is indefinite, a device that goes back to Indo-European.^[2][5]

Its nominative and neuter match Latin quis, quid and Hittite kuiš, kuit, from *kʷid for the neuter.^[2][5] The accusative τινά (tiná) added the ending -α to an older form without it (compare Hittite kuin); from there the stem in -ν- spread to the other cases, already in Homer.^[2][5] The Ionic genitive τέο (téo) goes back to *kʷéso, as in Old Church Slavonic чесо (česo) and Gothic 𐍈𐌹𐍃 (ƕis).^[2] The old neuter plural survives in ἄσσα (ássa) and ἄττα (átta), which arose from a false division of the words after a relative.^[2][5]

The labiovelar /kʷ/ became /t/ before /i/ in most dialects, /k/ in Thessalian and /s/ in Arcadian and Cypriot, while Mycenaean still writes it as q in Mycenaean Greek jo-qi, later ὅτι (hóti).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Homer on, as a pronoun “someone, something” and as an adjective “a, some”, and Homer already uses it collectively for people in general, as in “so someone would say”, meaning that this is what people said.^[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Homer and later the pronoun can also refer to everyone concerned (“let each man sharpen his spear”) or, with a demonstrative, to every single one.^[4][3] Attic writers use it to avoid naming a person, often meaning the speaker or the listener (“someone will pay for this”, that is, “you will”), and euphemistically for something bad, so that “if something happens to him” means “if he dies”.^[4]

Opposed to “nobody”, it came to mean “somebody of importance”, and the neuter “something of substance”: Euripides has a character pride himself on being “someone”, and in Plato “they say something” means that there is something in what they say.^[4] With a proper name it means “a certain” or “someone like”, and with adjectives and numbers it softens the statement (“about”, “a sort of”).^[4][3] The genitive του is rare after 300 BC and absent from the Septuagint.^[3]

Modern Greek dictionaries still list τις, taking it from the ancient pronoun.^[7][8]

Timeline

• 700s BC – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it as a pronoun and an adjective, and collectively of people in general.^[4][3][6]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod uses it in the Works and Days and the Theogony.^[6]
• 5th century BC – Euripides and Aristophanes use it of an important person and of a speaker who does not name himself.^[4][9]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the neuter of a statement with something true in it.^[4][9]
• After 300 BC – The Attic genitive του becomes rare; the Septuagint never uses it.^[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (enclitic, indefinite) someone, something; anyone, anything.^[4][3]
2. (as an adjective) A, any, some: “a god”, “some man”.^[4]
3. (collective) People in general, everyone concerned; with a demonstrative or ἕκαστος, every one.^[4][3]
4. Someone whom the speaker does not want to name, often the speaker or the listener; in the neuter, a euphemism for something bad.^[4]
5. (as opposed to nobody) Someone of importance; something of substance.^[4]
6. (with proper names) A certain, one called; someone like.^[4][3]
7. (with adjectives, numbers) A kind of, somewhat, about.^[4][3]

Word family

• μήτις (mḗtis)
• ὅστις (hóstis)
• οὔτις (oútis)
• ἄττα (átta)

Related words

• τίς (tís)
• Latin quis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ Ακαδημία Αθηνών (2014), Χρηστικό Λεξικό της Νεοελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Academy of Athens
8. ^ Τεγόπουλος, Γ.; Φυτράκης, Ε. (1997), Μείζον Ελληνικό Λεξικό, Athens: Αρμονία
9. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge