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Definition 2024


αὐτός

αὐτός

Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

  • ἀϝτός (awtós) Cretan
  • αὑτός (hautós) crasis with (ho)
  • αὐτοσί (autosí) emphatic

Pronoun

αὐτός (autós) m, αὐτή (autḗ) f, αὐτό (autó) n; first/second declension

  1. (without article) self
    1. (in nominative, emphasizing the subject)
    2. (reflexive pronoun, in oblique cases) himself, herself, itself, themselves
    3. (in philosophy, of an abstract idea) by or in itself
  2. (without article, in oblique cases, 3rd person personal pronoun) he, she, it, they
  3. (with definite article) same

Inflection

Usage notes

The intended sense of αὐτός is generally defined by its grammatical context. When used as a lone nominal without an article, it is generally the third person personal pronoun. When appended to a nominal and not possessing the definite article it is "self". When combined with the definite article, either appended to a nominal or on its own, it is "same".

The neuter plural ταὐτά "the same things" (derived from τὰ αὐτά by crasis) is distinguished from ταῦτα "these things" by the accent placement. The two sometimes occur together:

386 BCE – 367 BCE, Plato, Meno 85.e
οὗτος γὰρ ποιήσει περὶ πάσης γεωμετρίας ταὐτὰ ταῦτα, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων μαθημάτων ἁπάντων
For he will do the same as this with all geometry and every other branch of knowledge.

Derived terms

  • ἐμαυτοῦ (emautoû), σεαυτοῦ (seautoû), σαυτοῦ (sautoû), ἑαυτοῦ (heautoû), αὑτοῦ (hautoû)
  • ταὐτότης (tautótēs)

Descendants

References