Word Finder - aorists

definition

(grammar) A grammatical category of verbs that is often a perfective past: that is, it expresses perfective aspect (also known as aorist aspect) and past tense. The nearest equivalent in English is the simple past.

definition

(grammar) This grammatical category in a particular language, for instance, Albanian and Ancient and Modern Greek.

definition

(grammar) A particular verb in the aorist.

No new second aorists, we may be sure, were formed any more than new " strong " tenses, such as came or sang, can be formed in English.

Now in Homer there are upwards of 80 second aorists (not reckoning aorists of " Verbs in µc," such as i'ar,Y, i,3rpv), whereas in all Attic prose not more than 30 are found.

In Attic poets, it is true, the number of such aorists is much larger than in prose.

Of the poetical aorists in Attic the larger part are also Homeric. Others are not really Attic at all, but borrowed from earlier Aeolic and Doric poetry.

While the whole class of " strong " aorists diminished, certain smaller groups in the class disappeared altogether.

To the same century we may assign the grammarian Theodosius of Alexandria, who, instead of confining himself (like Dionysius Thrax) to the tenses of Tb rTW in actual use, was the first to set forth all the imaginary aorists and futures of that verb, which have thence descended through the Byzantine age to the grammars of the Renaissance and of modern Europe.