[B-Greek] Definition of an anarthrous noun.

Steven Lo Vullo slovullo at mac.com
Sun Jun 13 23:49:53 EDT 2004


On Jun 13, 2004, at 8:15 PM, Hal Goodnight wrote:

> Hello, list members. I was curious if the
> knowledgeable members of this list could clear up a
> matter for me. I have an aquaintence who claims to
> know a great deal of Greek, whereas I am an amateur.
> When he asked me what an anarthrous noun was, I told
> him it was a noun that lacked the definite article. (A
> articular, or arthrous, noun would thus be a noun that
> has the definite article.) He said this was wrong, and
> later suggested that my definition was the "simple"
> definition and there was a more complicated definition
> (somewhere), but he's never told me what the real
> definition was.

Well, I don't know how knowledgeable I am, but unless I missed 
something along the way, anarthrous means, exactly as you said, 
"without the article." Perhaps your acquaintance was talking about 
determining whether a word is definite or indefinite, which can be 
difficult at times.
============

Steven Lo Vullo
Madison, WI




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