ἢ

See also: Appendix:Variations of "h"

ἤ U+1F24, ἤ GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI AND OXIA Composition: η [U+03B7] + ◌̓ [U+0313] + ◌́ [U+0301] ← ἣ [U+1F23] Greek Extended ἥ → [U+1F25]

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• ἠέ (ēé) — Epic

Etymology

From the Proto-Hellenic *ēwe, from Proto-Indo-European *-wē (“or”).^[1]

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̌ː/ → /i/ → /i/

• (5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /ɛ̌ː/
• (1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /e̝/
• (4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /i/
• (10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /i/
• (15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /i/

Conjunction

ἤ • (ḗ)

1. or
2. than, as (in a comparative construction)

Usage notes

The pair ἤ... ἦ (ḗ... ê) means ‘either... or...’ or ‘whether... or...’.

Derived terms

• ἤτοι (ḗtoi)

Descendants

• Greek: ή (í)

References

1. Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἤ 4”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 507

Further reading

• “ἤ”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “ἤ”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “ἤ”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• ἤ in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• ἤ in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• “ἤ”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• G2228 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible