Ancient Greek

Adverb

ναί • ‎(naí)

1. (used to express strong affirmation) yea, verily
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.286
   • 490 BCE – 430 BCE, Empedocles, Collected Works 76.2
   • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Theocritus, Collected Works 27.27
   • 300 BCE – 250 BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 2.151
   • 125 CE – 200 CE, Lucian, Astrology 14
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1445
   1. (in oaths)
      • 422 BCE, Aristophanes, The Wasps 1438
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Hellenica 4.4.10
      • 431 BCE, Euripides, Medea 1277
2. (in answers) yes
   • 472 BCE, Aeschylus, The Persians 738
   • 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 193.A
   • 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 448.B
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 1468
   • 70 CE – 110 CE, The Gospel of Matthew 5.37
   1. (with ἀλλά ‎(allá, “but”) or similar words, as a qualified assent) yes...but
      • 389 BCE – 314 BCE, Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon 84
      • 360 BCE, Plato, The Sophist 226.E
      • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 415.E

Antonyms

• οὐ ‎(ou)

Descendants

• Greek: ναι ‎(nai)

References

• ναί in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ναί in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ναί in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «ναί» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «ναί» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• ναί in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G3483”, 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.
  • assuredly idem, page 48.
  • certainly idem, page 122.
  • even idem, page 284.
  • yes idem, page 996.

1. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/etymagraecaetymo00wharuoft#page/90/mode/2up