ἔπος

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

  • ϝέπος (wépos) – earlier

Etymology

From earlier ϝέπος (wépos), from Proto-Hellenic *wékʷos, from Proto-Indo-European *wékʷos, from *wekʷ- (“to speak”). Cognates include Sanskrit वचस् (vácas) and Avestan 𐬬𐬀𐬗𐬀𐬵‎ (vacah-).

Pronunciation

 

Noun

ἔπος • (épos) n (genitive ἔπεος or ἔπους); third declension

  1. something spoken: speech, story, song
    1. one's word, promise
    2. word as opposed to deed
    3. subject
    4. a line of poetry
    5. (when discussing etymology or usage) an individual word
  2. (in the plural) epic poetry
  3. (the phrase, ὡς ἔπος εἰπεῖν, qualifying a hyperbolic statement) so to speak, roughly speaking, almost
  4. (the phrase, κατ’ ἔπος) word by word

Declension

Synonyms

Antonyms

  • (word): ἔργον (érgon, “deed”)
  • (epic poetry): μέλη (mélē), ἰαμβεῖα (iambeîa), διθύραμβοι (dithúramboi)

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

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