ἐγώ

Forms

ἐγώ (egṓ) ^[1] Accusative ἐμέ, enclitic με, genitive ἐμοῦ, enclitic μου (Ionic and epic ἐμεῖο, ἐμέο, ἐμεῦ, epic ἐμέθεν), dative ἐμοί, enclitic μοι.^[2][3] Epic, Lesbian and Doric also ἐγών, Laconian and Tarentine ἐγώνη, Boeotian ἰώ(ν).^[4][2] Dual νώ, νῶι “we two”, plural ἡμεῖς, Aeolic ἄμμες, Doric ἁμές.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Hellenic *egṓ, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵoH (“I”).^[1][4] It matches Latin egō exactly, and Venetic and Germanic have the same form (Old Norse ek); Armenian and Hittite have it without a final vowel: Old Armenian ես (es), Hittite uk.^[4][5] Indo-Iranian and Slavic have a form in *-h₁om: Sanskrit अहम् (ahám), Old Persian adam, Old Church Slavonic азъ (azŭ).^[4][5] Beekes asks whether the two endings were remodelled after the verbal endings ⟨-ō⟩ and ⟨-om⟩, or whether ⟨-om⟩ is a particle.^[4] Homeric and Doric ἐγών (egṓn) may be a compromise between the two forms, and in Laconian ἐγώνη (egṓnē) ⟨-νη⟩ is a deictic particle.^[4]

The oblique cases come from another stem, ἐμέ (emé), με (me), which matches mē, मा (mā) and Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌺 (mik).^[6][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is the pronoun of the first person from Homer on: “I”, with oblique forms meaning “me”.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

Because the verb ending already shows the person, the nominative is used for emphasis, above all in contrast with another person; the enclitic oblique forms are unstressed, and the full forms draw attention or follow prepositions.^[2] Strengthened with γε (ge) it gives ἔγωγε (égōge) “I for my part”, more frequent in Attic than in Homer.^[3]

Medieval Greek kept it, with the forms εμέ(ν), εμέναν and εώ, which survive in dialects.^[8] Modern Greek has εγώ (egó), continuing the ancient nominative, with the accusative εμένα (eména), a medieval form made from εμέν with an added -α.^[9] The noun το εγώ “the self, the ego” is a learned semantic loan from English ego and German das Ich.^[9]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad and the Odyssey use it and the epic form ἐγών.^[3][7]
• 5th century BC – Aristophanes has the Doric ἐγώνγα.^[3][6]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts have the forms εμέ(ν), εμέναν and εώ.^[8]
• Modern Greek – It survives as εγώ (egó), and as a noun, “the ego”, after English and German.^[9]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. I; in the oblique cases, me.^[2][3]
2. (with γε) I for my part, I at least.^[3]

Word family

• ἔγωγε (égōge)

Related words

• ἡμεῖς (hēmeîs)
• νώ (nṓ)
• ἐμός (emós)
• Latin ego

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ 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
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. ^ a b Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
7. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
8. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki