Greek verbs, irregular and defective

736 Pages·2016·32.54 MB·English

by  Veitch William.

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GREEK VERBS
VEITCH
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AMEN CORNER, E.G.
GREEK VERBS
IRREGULAR AND DEFECTIVE
THEIR
l~
FORMS MEANING AND QUANTITY
Embracing all the Tenses used by the Greek Writers, with References to the
Passages in which they arefound
BY
WILLIAM VEITCH, LL.D. EDIN.
NEW EDITION
Oxford
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
MDCCCLXXXVII
A
[ II rights reserved]

PREFACE.
THIS book, on the Irregular and Defective Greek Verbs, is the
resultofmuch toilsome labourand anxious thought
l the course of extensive and rather accurate reading of the
GreekAuthors, I had been accustomed to mark whatever occurred
to me as rare or peculiar in form, quantity, and meaning. This
often enabled meto supplyauthority in cases where none hadbeen
previously given, and often to supply even tenses which had been
deniedto exist.
The chiefpeculiarities which distinguish this book from others on
the samesubjectare thefollowing:
First, the history of the verb is more fully developed by being
traced to a later period of the language, and the proseusage given
commensuratelywith the poetic. I never could see the propriety
of accepting parts and forms peculiarto the Anthology, but reject-
ing those which occurfirst in Aristotle, Polybius, Arrian, Dionysius
of Halicarnassus, Lucian, etc. This fuller development will be of
no slight advantage to the advancedscholar; and I have taken care
to prevent its proving injurious to the less advanced whose at-
tention should be confined chiefly to what is strictly classical by
marking as late those parts and formswhich are not found in the
purerwriters.
Second, I have enlarged considerably the list of verbs, and given
authority for every part forwhichauthoritycouldbe found, forthe
present as well as forthe derivative tenses.
Third and what I hold of capital importance I have always
given the parts in the simple form when I could find them, and in
no instance have I given a compound withoutwarning, orexhibiting
its composition. The giving as simple forms those which the
Greeks uniformly employed as compound, is a fault that deeply
vitiates every book on the subject, and a fault of perhaps graver
import than may on first thoughts be very obvious. It is easy to
say that the compound infers the simple. But to what extent, and
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PREFACE.
vi
in what sense is this truer Legitimate analogical formation is one
thing,usageisanother. TheRomansoftheclassic periodsaidlinquo,
liqui, linquere, but re-lictus; tollo, tollere, but sustuli, sublatum;
elicio, not lacio; inspicio, not specio, etc., etc.r and we say deceive,
perceive, receive, but never ceive; preserve,, observe, reserve, never:
in this sense, the simple serve.
This might be followed out to great length, but it is enough for
my purpose merely to indicate the line of investigation, and to
suggest an analogouscase in other languages, especially in ourown
in which we can feel more strongly and finely. From the frequent
absence of simples in whole or in part, and from the analogy of
other languages, is it not a natural and legitimate inference that
the Greeks would have felt it as strange to hear certain of their
compound verbs used in the simple form as we should do to hear
some of ours? No doubt changes introduced by time, accident,
use and wont, the absence of such combinations of circumstances
as require the simple, the fact that compounds lose their more
prominent distinctiveness and thus serve the purpose of simples,
degradation from written or confinement to spoken speech, usurpa-
tion by other verbs identical or akin in meaning, loss of records,
and other causes may go far towards accounting for certain curious
phenomena in language; but let us have correct data from which
to reason: let us have what the Greeks wrote. The investigation
is an interesting one, and I should be glad if it were taken up by
some person whohas sufficient leisure, a mind ofsufficient compass,
and duly exercised by use to discern the thingsthat differ.
I have uniformly used the best editions of the Greek Authors,
and have thus been enabled to exhibit the Irregularand Defective
Verbssomewhat more in accordance with the now approved Texts
than has hitherto been done. Some books of considerable merit
have been greatly marred by the use of uncritical editions. In
cases of disputed readings, instead of arbitrating myself, I have
given what in abook like this ought alwaysto be given the MSS.
and Editors thatsupport each reading; and have thus furnished the
scholar with the proper data, the external grounds at least, for
guiding his decision. All my references are the result of my own
reading I have not borrowed them from others, except in afew
;
very late Authors, Philo for instance, Apollinaris, etc., and these
I owe to Lobeck. To Buttmann and Matthiae I am much in-
debted. Buttmann on Epic diction has no equal; and Matthiae's
list of Irregular Verbs in the third German edition of his Greek