GRK 302-07                  Vocab-building: Verbs

Tragedy takes us into a new dimension of the lexicon. The best way to find your way around--to be able to recall a passage after you have worked through it--is to master basic vocabulary and learn to recognize peculiar terms from context.  For instance, in Medea, line 19 we meet the rare verb αἰσυμνάω, ‘rule/preside over’ (linked to the old political term, αἰσυμνήτης, ‘arbiter/tyrant’): that is not a word you will have much use for beyond this passage, but once deciphered it is easy to recognize in context.

The basic vocabulary is burdensome enough. One trick to it is to build connections and oppositions: For example in the first speech of the Nurse/τροφός,

δια-πτάσθαι (1), ‘fly through’, and πεσεῖν (3), ‘fall’—both are aorist infinitives from the same root, derived respectively from πέτομαι, fly, and familiar πίπτω (reduplicated present, πι-πτ-ω).

So, as you learn/review principal parts, build new vocabulary with links to the old.

Basic verbs, lines 1-27, parts in common use: for κτλ, fill in the remaining.

ὀφείλω, ‘owe’, most often in past, esp. 2^nd aorist, ὤφελον (as here) in counterfactual sense, ‘ought’

δια-πέτομαι, -πτήσομαι, -επτόμην and (poetic) –επτάμην –‘fly (through)’

πίπτω, πεσοῦμαι, ἔπεσον, πέπτωκα, ‘fall’ [ἔπεσον --> inf. πεσεῖν]

τέμνω, τεμῶ, ἔτεμον, τέτμηκα, ἐτμήθην, ‘cut’ --> aor. pass. participle τμηθεῖσα.

          [[ἐρετμόω<--τὸ ἐρετμόν, ‘oar’]]

μετ-έρχομαι, -ῆλθον, κτλ. ‘go after, pursue’

πλέω, πλεύσομαι, ἔπλευσα, πέπλευκα, ‘sail’

πλήττω, ‘strike’ --> ἐκ-πλήττω, -πλήξω, -έπληξα, πέπληγα, πέπλήγμαι, ‘derange/drive out of one’s mind’; ἐξ-επλάγην (2^nd aor. pass.)--> ἐκ-πλαγεῖσα

(ἀπο-)κτείνω, κτενῶ, ἔκτεινα, ἀπ-έκτονα, ‘kill’; poetic 2^nd aor. ἔκτανον.

πείθω, πείσομαι, ἔπεισα, κτλ. ‘persuade’.

κατ-οικέω, ‘settle, come to dwell’

ἀνδάνω (from the root of ‘sweet’), ‘please, satisfy’--> participle ἁνδάνουσα, ‘pleasing’ to the citizens = ‘at their pleasure’

ἀφ-ικνέομαι, κτλ.

ξυμ-(=συμ) –φερω, κτλ. ‘be useful, expedient/benefit’  + dat.

νοσέω (<< ἡ νόσος), ‘be ill, diseased).

προ-διδωμι, κτλ. ‘betray’.  (so what form is προ-δούς?)

γαμέω (<< γάμος), ‘wed, marry’ [[εὐνάζομαι ‘make (my) bed’ (<< εὔνη)]] Aor. ἔγημα >> γήμας

ἀ-τιμάζω (<< τιμή), ‘dis-honor’. Regula –ζω-type. So what form is ἠτιμασμένη?

μαρτύρομαι, ‘call to witness’

κυρέω, (multi-purpose) ‘get, acquire, win, prevail over’

κεῖμαι, (pres. fut. & impf.) only, ‘lie, be placed’.

ὑφ-ίημι, -ήσω, -ηκα, ‘lay down, submit’. What form is ὑφ-εῖσα?

(συν-)τήκω, (Regular) ‘melt away’

αἰσθάνομαι, αἰσθήσομαι, ᾐσθόμην, ᾔσθημαι, ‘perceive, realize’

ἀ-δικέω, ‘injure, do wrong’

ἐπ-αίρω, ‘raise’                      ἀπ-αλλάσσω,  ‘release, turn from’ (-σσ- for -ττ-: parts like πράττω)