Ε, ε, fifth letter of the Gr. alphabet: as numeral ε# = πέντε and πέμπτος, but #22ε = 5000. The ancients called this vowel εἶ ( as they called ο, οὖ). When in the archonship of Euclides ( B. C. 403) the Athenians adopted long e (Η η) from the Samian alphabet, the Gramm. gave to short e the name of ἒ ψιλόν, i. e. ε without the aspirate, because Ε had been used for the aspirate. In ionic, ε sometimes stood for α^, βέρεθρον ἔρσην τέσσερες for βάραθρον ἄρσην τέσσαρες, and in contr. Verbs in -άω, as ὁρέω φοιτέω.
Liddell and Scott. An Intermediate Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1889.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.
hide
Dictionary Entry Lookup
Use this tool to search for dictionary entries in all lexica.
How to enter text in Greek:
