Definition

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Mark2456
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Definition

Postby Mark2456 » Sat Jan 22, 2022 2:20 pm

I am new to the site. I understand almost no Greek but I am hoping that someone can give me the definition to this word, tethosin. Thanks in advance.
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Le Baron
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Re: Definition

Postby Le Baron » Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:51 pm

It would be better to post this at the Greek study group.
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Re: Definition

Postby Iversen » Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:33 pm

There are members who study Ancient Greek here, but until they answer I'll chip in with a few observations. I only know Modern Greek, and the form in question has been dropped by now, but it's clear that it is a verb. OK, then I guessed that it might be spelt something like τεθώσιν (with the single accent still in use), and I found some examples with να before it, and then it must represent an aorist stem of sorts. I tried to look this form up through Google and found among other things this quote (oldfashioned, but spelt with modern accents): "ψήφισμα, αύται τε αί στήλαι τεθώσιν εν τοϊς Καισαρήοις", which according to GT means "Resolution, these are the columns to be placed in the Caesareans" (I would have translated ψήφισμα as 'vote', but both translations make sense). OK, seems that "τεθώσιν" is the plural third person of some form of "θέτω" (I put, I place") or whatever its equivalent was thousands of years ago.

There is however one thing that still irks me: I checked Wikipedia, and here I found several forms ending in -ην - and they were generally in the 'middle' voice (which of course also has been kicked down into the glum darkness of Tartaros since the olden days of yore), so without a context or the form written in Greek I can't exlude that possibility. Actually the quote with the columns could point into that direction since those columns aren't placing themselves. But I would leave it to those who actually have studied Ancient Greek in some form to give you the final solution.
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Re: Definition

Postby Deinonysus » Sun Jan 23, 2022 1:58 pm

My level of Ancient Greek is very basic, but I looked up this Romanization and it is a form of the very common word τίθημι (títhēmi), meaning put, place, set or make. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%84%C ... E%BC%CE%B9

The Greek spelling of tethosin is τεθῶσιν (tethõsin), which Iverson guessed correctly except for the accent (and he also correctly guessed the meaning). This form of the word τίθημι is... are you ready for this? The third person plural aorist (simple past) passive subjunctive. So the meaning may be something like "that they were put" or "that they were made".
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/daɪ.nə.ˈnaɪ.səs/

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Re: Definition

Postby Dragon27 » Sun Jan 23, 2022 3:49 pm

This is all very nice, of course, but I'm personally curious about the context of this question: where OP has taken this very specific form of a verb (which is very hard for me to imagine used in isolation), romanized, and felt compelled to ask "the definition" of, and not provide the entire phrase? Just feels kind of unmotivated, imo.
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