Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• ὀφέλλω ‎(ophéllō) Epic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot
• ὀφήλω ‎(ophḗlō) Cretan, Arcadocypriot

Verb

ὀφείλω • ‎(opheílō)

1. I owe
   • 414 BCE, Aristophanes, The Birds 115
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 21
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 117
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 485
   • 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 1135
   • 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 581
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1167.b.21
   • 310 BCE – 240 BCE, Callimachus, Fr. 126
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.52
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 5.99
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.688
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 3.367
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 8.332
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 8.462
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 21.17
   • 362 BCE – 262 BCE, Philemon, Collected Works 163
   • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 331.b
   • 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 2.832.a
   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 1.2.11
   • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 7.7.34
   1. (figuratively)
      • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Fragments 315
      • 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers 310
      • 175 CE – 235 CE, Claudius Aelianus, Various History 10.5
      • 416 BCE, Euripides, Herakles 287
      • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Olympian Ode 10.3
      • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 335.e
      • 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.137
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 4.5.32
      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.2.28
   2. (law) I incur
      • 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 77
      • 425 BCE, Euripides, Andromache 360
      • 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, On the Murder of Eratosthenes 32
      • 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, For the Soldier 10
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 774.b
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 844.e
      • 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 909.a
   3. (passive, of persons) I am due or liable to
      • 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Septuagint, Wisdom of Solomon 12.20
      • 556 BCE – 468 BCE, Simonides, Collected Works 122
      • Palatine Anthology 9.283
2. (with infinitive) I am bound, obligated, I ought, I should, I have to
   • 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Fragments 456
   • 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1104.a.2
   • 438 BCE, Euripides, Alcestis 419
   • 438 BCE, Euripides, Alcestis 682
   • 408 BCE, Euripides, Orestes 1245
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.41
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 19.200
   • 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, Defence against a Charge of subverting the Democracy 11
   • 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1173
   • 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 1421
3. (impersonal) it behooves
   • 300 BCE – 250 BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.678
   • 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Nemean Ode 2.6
   • 50 CE – 150 CE, Soranus, Collected Works 1.79

Inflection

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• Greek: όφελος ‎(ófelos)

References

• ὀφείλω in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ὀφείλω in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• ὀφείλω in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
• «ὀφείλω» 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
• ὀφείλω in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G3784”, 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.
  • beholden to idem, page 72.
  • bound idem, page 90.
  • debt idem, page 199.
  • debtor idem, page 199.
  • due idem, page 255.
  • oblige idem, page 565.
  • ought idem, page 581.
  • owe idem, page 587.
• 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