ἀεί

Forms

ᾱ̆̓εί (āeí) ^[1] Homeric and Ionic αἰεί (aieí), epic αἰέν (aién), Doric αἰές (aiés), Aeolic ἄι (ái).^[2][3] Inscriptions of Cyprus, Locris and Phocis keep the digamma, ⟨αἰϝεί⟩.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *aiweí,^[1] from *αἰϝέσι (*aiwési), the locative of an s-stem meaning “lifetime”; without the ending the same stem gives Doric αἰές (aiés).^[3][4] Beside it stood an n-stem, seen in epic αἰέν (aién) and in αἰών (aiṓn, “lifetime, eternity”).^[3][4] Both are extensions of a u-stem from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ei-u- (“lifetime, vital force”).^[3][1][5] The Attic form is the one that lost the ⟨ι⟩ of αἰεί (aieí).^[4][5]

Cognate with Latin aevum (“age, lifetime”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍅𐍃 (aiws, “age, time”) and a Sanskrit neuter meaning “lifetime”.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Homer uses αἰεί and αἰέν, “always, for ever”, often with words of duration such as “unceasingly”, and the Attic form also occurs three times in Homer.^[6][4][7]

Semantic evolution

Besides “for ever, continually”, from the time of Aeschylus it meant “at any given moment”: ὁ ἀεὶ βασιλεύων in Herodotus is “the king of the day”, and ὁ ἀεὶ χρόνος is eternity.^[2][6] With the article it named the immortals, οἱ ἀεὶ ὄντες, in Xenophon.^[6]

In the New Testament the Second Letter to the Corinthians speaks of those who are “always rejoicing”.^[8] From it came ἀΐδιος (aḯdios, “eternal”) and εἰσαεί (eisaeí, “for ever”).^[4][1]

Modern Greek keeps αεί (aeí) as a learned word, and as the prefix αει- in compounds such as αειπάρθενος “ever-virgin”.^[9][5]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use αἰεί and αἰέν for “always”.^[6][10]
• 5th century BC – Herodotus calls the king of the day ὁ αἰεὶ βασιλεύων.^[6]
• 4th century BC – Plato uses it in phrases such as “always, every day”.^[6]
• 1st century AD – The Second Letter to the Corinthians speaks of being always joyful.^[8]
• Modern Greek – The word survives as a learned adverb and the prefix αει- (aei-).^[9][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Always, for ever.^[2][6]
2. Continually, all the time.^[2]
3. At any given time, in each case: “whoever is in power at the moment”.^[2][6]
4. (with the article) Eternal: ὁ ἀεὶ χρόνος “eternity”, οἱ ἀεὶ ὄντες “the immortals”.^[6]

Word family

• εἰσαεί (eisaeí)
• ἀΐδιος (āḯdios)

Related words

• αἰών (aiṓn)
• Latin aevum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ a b c d Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
10. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux