[B-Greek] ORAW and EIDW

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Apr 14 09:39:23 EDT 2004


At 8:13 AM -0500 4/14/04, Alan Bunning wrote:
>Do all these words have ORAW for a root or could any of them be OIDA (or
>listed as EIDW in Strong's)?
>
>eidete
>eides
>eidomen
>eidon
>ide
>idhte
>idontes
>
>Different texts have parsed these to both of these roots, so I am somewhat
>confused by this. I would guess that they all belong to second aorist of
>ORAW, but it does seem that some like ide could go either way.

The standard conjugation of the verb translated "see" in Biblical Greek is
based on three different roots:hORA (present hORAW, imperfect hEWRWN,
perfect hEWRAKA), EID/OID/ID ( 2 aorist EIDON stem ID-), and OP (future
OYOMAI, aorist "passive" WFQHN). Technically speaking these forms from
roots different from that of the present tense are called "suppletions."

The perfect tense form OIDA with the sense "know" and the Homeric EIDOMAI
"look like" are from the same root EID/OID/ID that appears as the aorist of
hORAW.

These and such-like facts about irregular verbs are among those items that
must be committed to memory, not just as lists to reproduced on demand, but
as matters of instantaneous recognition upon sight--the same way that an
English-speaker knows instinctively that the past of "go" is "went."
-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



More information about the B-Greek mailing list