Lexicon Entries

[LearningGreek]

I was watching a YouTube video on how to read a Greek Lexicon entry.

They stated that the -ου next to a word was its genitive singular form and this was to help with third declension parsing.

Once example they gave is below

πλοῖον, ου, τό (Aeschyl., Hdt.+; esp. freq. in later times, when ναῦς [in our lit. only Ac 27:41; on the differentiation s. Didymus p. 321 MSchmidt] became rare; ins, pap, LXX; En 101:4; OdeSol 11:9; TestSol; TestJob 18:7; TestNapht 6:2, 3, 5; EpArist 214; Joseph.—Prim.: ‘ship’ of any kind, though esp. a merchant ship).

Where I am confused is that ου does not match any of the 3rd declensions case endings, so how does that help?

What am I missing? I know I am out in left field so to speak, I just cant figure out how to get back.

Also, if anyone has a resource on how to parse Greek Lexicon entries for verbs and nouns I would appreciate it. Right now I am just trying to find videos on youtube and its hit or miss.

Thank you.

[Stephen Carlson]

Which youtube video is this? There’s a disconnection somewhere.

[LearningGreek]

Its a 20 minute video, the comment in question is at the 7 minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxt_CY9 ... ag&index=2

[Stephen Carlson]

Thanks for that. He said the genitive was “handy for third declension nouns,” which I suppose it is, but he didn’t actually say this word was third declension.

[LearningGreek]

Can you please explain what is meant by the genitive helping on third declension nouns? This is where I am getting lost. How does having the genitive form help?

[Stephen Carlson]

The genitive singular form is what best shows you the stem of a noun. If you remove the genitive ending (whatever declension) you’ll get the stem. For first and second declension nouns, this is usually no big deal, but for third declension nouns the stem is not always apparent from the nominative form. It is apparent from the genitive, however, which is why it’s helpful to have it listed separately.

[Jean Putmans]

A simple scheme:

1. Decl: (α-Stems) : Gen.: fem -ησ/-ασ; Mask. -ου

2. Decl: (ο-Stems) : Gen. MFN : -ου
(Remarkable exception: νοοσ/νουσ : in claσs.Greek: Gen. = νοου; Koine/NT: νοοσ)

3. Decl. : alle others (Gen. -οσ; -εωσ, -υοσ, ουσ)

Short version:
If the Lemma shows gen. : ου/ησ/ασ : First/second decl.; the rest would be third.

This scheme worked for me, maybe it will work for you.

Regards

Jean

[LearningGreek]

The genitive singular form is what best shows you the stem of a noun. If you remove the genitive ending (whatever declension) you’ll get the stem. For first and second declension nouns, this is usually no big deal, but for third declension nouns the stem is not always apparent from the nominative form. It is apparent from the genitive, however, which is why it’s helpful to have it listed separately.

This clears up a lot but I am still a little foggy.

Mounces 3rd declension hint number 1 states that the gen sg minus the case ending equals the stem, which sounds like what was stated in your post.

What was/is tripping me up is that ου from what I can tell is not the gen sg case ending for 3rd declension (ος is).

So would the 3rd declension stem be the form of the word with ου or the form of the word without ου? Ie, do I remove the ου to get the 3rd declension stem?

Thank you for your time and help.

[Stephen Carlson]

So would the 3rd declension stem be the form of the word with ου or the form of the word without ου? Ie, do I remove the ου to get the 3rd declension stem?

If the genitive is ends in -ου, it’s not going to be 3rd declension, but almost always 2nd declension except for 1st declension masculine nouns.

For πλοῖον, πλοἰου, τὀ, if you remove the -ου of the genitive πλοἰου, you get πλοἰ-, which is the stem. All the other forms of this noun are built on this stem. It’s 2nd declension because of the nominative -ον and genitive -ου endings.

For 2nd declensions, the genitive doesn’t really tell more than what you can figure out from the nominative. But this changes for 3rd declensions. For example, take αἴξ, “goat”—what the stem? You can’t tell from the nominative, but if you knew that the genitive was αἰγὀς, then you’d know that the stem has a γ in it rather than κ, χ, or something else. This means that 3rd declension nouns require you to know two forms (the nominative and the genitive singular) to know the rest of the forms, while for the first and second declensions, you just need one of them (and occasionally the gender).

[LearningGreek]

So would the 3rd declension stem be the form of the word with ου or the form of the word without ου? Ie, do I remove the ου to get the 3rd declension stem?

If the genitive is ends in -ου, it’s not going to be 3rd declension, but almost always 2nd declension except for 1st declension masculine nouns.

For πλοῖον, πλοἰου, τὀ, if you remove the -ου of the genitive πλοἰου, you get πλοἰ-, which is the stem. All the other forms of this noun are built on this stem. It’s 2nd declension because of the nominative -ον and genitive -ου endings.

For 2nd declensions, the genitive doesn’t really tell more than what you can figure out from the nominative. But this changes for 3rd declensions. For example, take αἴξ, “goat”—what the stem? You can’t tell from the nominative, but if you knew that the genitive was αἰγὀς, then you’d know that the stem has a γ in it rather than κ, χ, or something else. This means that 3rd declension nouns require you to know two forms (the nominative and the genitive singular) to know the rest of the forms, while for the first and second declensions, you just need one of them (and occasionally the gender).

That makes perfect sense. Thank you for taking the time to write all that out.