ἐμός

Forms

ἐμός (emós) m (feminine ἐμή, neuter ἐμόν); first/second declension^[1] With the article it often contracts: οὑμός (houmós), τοὐμόν (toumón), τἀμά (tamá), mostly in tragedy and rarely in prose, though οὑμός is found once in the Iliad.^[2][3] Dialectal feminine ἐμᾱ́ (emā́).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Indo-European *h₁mós (“my”),^[1] a possessive made on the stem of the oblique cases of ἐγώ (egṓ, “I”), accusative ἐμέ (emé).^[5][1] Pokorny places it with the possessive *mo- of Avestan ma- (“my”), Old Armenian իմ (im) and Albanian im.^[6][5] Chantraine sets the initial ε- of ἐμέ (emé) beside the same prothesis in the Armenian word; Latin meus is a different formation.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the first book of the Iliad, meaning 'my', with or without the article, and as a predicate, 'mine'.^[7][8] Homer already uses it objectively, as in news “of me”, and without a noun, as in “no word of mine can be taken back”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Greek it was used as a noun in many ways: οἱ ἐμοί for my friends or followers (Homer, Xenophon), τὰ ἐμά for my property, affairs or children (Sophocles, Plato), τὸ ἐμόν for my part, my duty or my advice, ἡ ἐμή for my country (Thucydides) or my opinion (Aristophanes, Plato), and τό γε ἐμόν, “for my part”.^[2][4] In Antiphon ἐμός can mean 'on my side', of evidence favourable to the speaker.^[2]

In the New Testament it often stands where the genitive μου (mou) could be used, and sometimes for emphasis: “with my own hand”.^[9] Arrian's Epictetus has “my dear Heraclitus”.^[2]

Timeline

• Homer – The Iliad uses it from its first book.^[7][8]
• Before the 6th century BC – Hesiod's Works and Days has “my father and yours”.^[2][3]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses the feminine for “my country”.^[2][4][3]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato uses the neuter plural for “my property”.^[2][3]
• 1st century AD – The New Testament uses it for the possessive genitive.^[9]
• 2nd century AD – Arrian's Epictetus uses it affectionately, “my dear Heraclitus”.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. My, mine, of me.^[2][4]
2. (objective) Relating to me: about me, toward me, against me.^[2][4]
3. (as a noun) οἱ ἐμοί (hoi emoí), my friends or followers, τὰ ἐμά (tà emá), my property, affairs or children, and τὸ ἐμόν (tò emón), my part, my duty or business.^[2][4]
4. (feminine as a noun) ἡ ἐμή (hē emḗ), my country or my opinion.^[2][4]
5. Favourable to me, on my side.^[2]

Related words

• ἐγώ (egṓ)
• σός (sós)
• Latin meus

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 Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c 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. ^ Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern; Munich: Francke
7. ^ a b Cunliffe, Richard John (1924), A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect, London: Blackie and Son
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ 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