Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• τίρ ‎(tír) Laconian, Elean, rhotacism

Pronoun

τῐ́ς • ‎(tís)

1. (interrogative)
   1. (substantive)
      1. (masculine, feminine) who?
      2. (neuter) what?
   2. (adjective) what? which? what kind?
2. (adverbial, accusative, τί) why?

Usage notes

• The neuter nominative/accusative τί ‎(tí) is never elided, but a hiatus is allowed in Attic Greek.
• The stem iota remains short in every declined form.

Inflection

Synonyms

• (interrogative adjective): ποῖος ‎(poîos)

Related terms

• πότερος ‎(póteros, “which of two”)
• ποῖος ‎(poîos, “what kind?”)
• πόσος ‎(pósos, “how much?”)
• πῶς ‎(pôs, “how?”)
• ποῦ ‎(poû, “where?”)
• πόθι ‎(póthi, “where?”)
• πόθεν ‎(póthen, “whence?”)
• ποῖ ‎(poî, “whither?”)
• πότε ‎(póte, “when?”)
• πηνίκα ‎(pēníka, “at what time?”)
• πηλίκος ‎(pēlíkos, “how large?”)
• ποσάκις ‎(posákis, “how many times?”)

Descendants

• Greek: τι ‎(ti)

References

• τις, τι in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• τίς in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• τίς in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «τίς» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• «τίς» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• τίς in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G5100”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • announce idem, page 30.
  • inconsistency idem, page 430.
  • which idem, page 976.
  • who idem, page 977.
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill

Etymology 2

See τις ‎(tis).

Pronoun

τίς • ‎(tís)

1. oxytone form of τις ‎(tis, “someone, anyone”)

Usage notes

Used before another enclitic:

• 386 BCE – 367 BCE, Plato, Meno 70.b

  καὶ δὴ καὶ τοῦτο τὸ ἔθος [Γοργίας] ὑ̄μᾶς εἴθικεν, ἀφόβως τε καὶ μεγαλοπρεπῶς ἀποκρί̄νεσθαι ἐά̄ν τίς τι ἔρηται.

  And furthermore, [Gorgias] has also accustomed you to the habit of answering fearlessly and magnificently if someone asks you something.