Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• σκοπεύω ‎(skopeúō)

Verb

σκοπέω • ‎(skopéō)

1. I look, look at, behold; I examine, inspect
   • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Olympian Ode 1.5

     μηκέθ᾽ ἁλίου σκόπει ἄλλο θαλπνότερον ἐν ἁμέρᾳ φαεννὸν ἄστρον ἐρήμας δι᾽ αἰθέρος

     look no further for any star warmer than the sun, shining by day through the lonely sky

   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 467

     καιρὸς γὰρ καλεῖ πλοῦν μὴ ᾽ξ ἀπόπτου μᾶλλον ἢ ᾽γγύθεν σκοπεῖν.

     Yes, since opportunity bids us watch near our ship for a fair wind, rather than from afar.

   1. (figuratively) I contemplate, consider
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.8

        ἐν τοῖσι ἓν τόδε ἐστί, σκοπέειν τινὰ τὰ ἑωυτοῦ.

        one of these is that one should mind one's own business.

      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.32

        σκοπέειν δὲ χρὴ παντὸς χρήματος τὴν τελευτήν, κῇ ἀποβήσεται

        It is necessary to see how the end of every affair turns out

      • 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 182.a

        σκόπει δή μοι τόδε αὐτῶν:

        Then just examine this point of their doctrine.

   2. I look for
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 5.7.32

        σκοπεῖτε παῦλάν τινα αὐτῶν:

        look about for some means of stopping them;

2. (middle voice) like active, perhaps implying a more deliberate consideration
   • 413 BCE, Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 68

     ὁρῶ, σκοποῦμαι δ᾽ ὄμμα πανταχῆ στρέφων.

     I am watching. Every side I turn mine eye.

Usage notes

Earlier writers use only the present and imperfect, with other tenses supplied by σκέπτομαι ‎(sképtomai).

Inflection

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• English: -scope

References

• σκοπέω in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “G4648”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• BDAG