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οὐδείς , fem. οὐδεμία^ (never nom. acc. -μίη, -μίην, since οὐδεμιῇ is prob. in Call.Aet.Oxy.2080.56, rarely
A.“οὐδ᾽ ἴα” Sapph.69, Mosch.4.40), neut. οὐδέν (declined and accentuated like εἷς, μία, ἕν), not one, i.e. no one, none, used by Hom., Hes., and Pi. (who prefer οὔτις) only in neut. nom. and acc. οὐδέν, exc. in the phrase “τὸ ὃν μένος οὐδενὶ εἴκων” Il.22.459, al.; οὐδείς is found in B.Fr.28; but all genders and cases are common in all other writers, Hdt.1.32,33, etc.: rare in pl., no set of persons or things, And.1.23 (dub. cj.), X.Lac.3.1; “πρὸς οὐδένας τῶν Ἑλλήνων” D.18.23 (v.l.), cf. 19.31,66,312, 24.214, 27.7; οὐδένων εἰσὶ βελτίους, i.e. οὔ τινων ἄλλων, Id.2.17 (cf. “οὐδενὸς βελτίους” Pl.Prt.324d): dat. pl. “οὐδέσιν” Paus.3.24.3; for another sense of the pl., v. infr. 11.3.—In Ion. the pl. is usu. οὐδαμοί.
2. οὐ. ὅστις οὐ every one, Hdt.3.72, etc.; οὐδὲν ὅ τι οὐ every, Id.5.97; this came to be regarded as one word, so that οὐδείς passed into the same case as “ὅστις, οὐδένα ὅντινα οὐ κατέκλασε” Pl.Phd.117d; “οὐδενὸς ὅτου οὐ πάντων ἂν . . πατὴρ εἴην” Id.Prt. 317c, cf. 323b; “οὐδενὶ ὅτῳ οὐκ ἀποκρινόμενος” Id.Men.70c; so “οὐ. ὃς οὐχὶ . . ὀνειδιεῖ” S.OT373; “οὐδὲν γὰρ . . οὔτ᾽ αἰσχρὸν οὔτ᾽ ἄτιμόν ἐσθ᾽, ὁποῖον οὐ . . οὐκ ὄπωπ᾽ ἐγώ” Id.Ant.4.
3. later οὐδὲν ὅ τι without οὐ, = nothing, “οὐδὲν ὅ τι παρήσω” Agath.Praef.p.137 D., al.
4. ὅστις οὐδείς not one, “ἐτεθνήκεσαν δὲ αὐτῶν μὲν ἀμφὶ τοὺς τετρακοσίους, Ρωμαίων δὲ ὅστις οὐδείς” Id.5.20.
II. naught, good for naught, “ὦ νῦν μὲν οὐ. αὔριον δ᾽ ὑπέρμεγας” Ar.Eq.158, cf. E.Fr.187.5; τὸ μὲν [γένος ἀνδρῶν] οὐδέν Pi.N.6.3: freq. in neut., οὐδὲν εἰδώς knowing naught, Thgn.141, E. Fr.391; οὐκ ἄρ᾽ ᾔστην οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν δάκνειν knew nothing save how to . . , Ar.Av.19; οὐδὲν λέγειν to say naught, v. λέγω (B) III. 6; τὸ οὐδ᾽ οὐδέν the absolute nothing, Pl.Tht.180a.
2. in neut., of persons, “οὐδέν εἰμι” S.Ph.951, etc.; “οὐδὲν εἶ” Ar.Ec.144; “πρὸς τὸν οὐδέν” E.Ph. 598; “τὸ μηδὲν εἰς οὐδὲν ῥέπει” Id.Fr.532.2; “ᾧ ἀνεμέσητον . . οὐδενὶ εἶναι” Pl.Tht.175e.
3. in pl., οὐδένες ἐόντες ἐν οὐδαμοῖσι ἐοῦσι Ἕλλησι being nobodies, Hdt.9.58; “ὄντες οὐδένες” E.Andr.700, cf. IA371; ὁ μηδὲν ὢν κἀξ οὐδένων κεκλήσομαι dub. cj. in Id.Ion594; “οὐ γὰρ ἠξίου τοὺς μηδένας” S.Aj.1114.
4. with Preps., “παρ᾽ οὐδὲν εἶναι” Id.OT983, etc.; παρ᾽ οὐδὲν ἄγειν, θέσθαι, Id.Ant.35, E.IT732; “δι᾽ οὐδενὸς ποιεῖσθαι” S.OC584; “ἐν οὐδενὸς εἶναι μέρει” D.2.18.
5. τὸ οὐδέν naught, zero, in Arith., Nicom.Ar.2.6; used by Democritus as a name for Place, Arist.Fr.208.
III. neut. οὐδέν as Adv., not at all, naught, “ἄριστον Ἀχαιῶν οὐ. ἔτισεν” Il.1.412, cf. 24.370, Hdt.5.34, Th.8.22, etc.; so “οὐδέν τι” X.Mem.1.2.42, etc.; “οὐ. τι πάντως” Hdt.5.65: in answers, nothing, never mind, no matter, E.Med.64, IT781, Ar.Nu. 694; οὐδέν γε not at all, Id.Av.1360, etc.; οὐδὲν μᾶλλον, οὐδὲν ἧσσον, οὐδὲν ὕστερος, v. μάλα 11.5, “ἥσσων” 111, “ὕστερος” A. I.
2. οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἤ, v. ἄλλος III. 2.
B. REMARKS: the more emphatic and literal sense, not even one, i.e. none whatever, belongs to the full form, οὐδὲ εἷς, οὐδὲ μία, οὐδὲ ἕν, which is never elided, even in Com. (v. Ar. Ra.927, Lys.1045 (lyr.), Pl.138, 1115), but freq. has a Particle inserted between, cf. “οὐδέ” B.—Zen. (in EM639.17) and others wrongly assume οὐδείς as a compd. not of οὐδέ and εἷς, but of οὐ and δείς (q. v.). (Later οὐθείς, q. v.)
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

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  • Cross-references in general dictionaries from this page (54):
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