Verb – Aorist sigmatic plural

ObjectivesLearning objectives

The morphology of pl Aorist sigmatic verbs
The inchoative use of the Aorist

VocabularyVocabulary

Greek	Gloss	Part of speech	Paradigm
ἐν ὀνόματι	in name	phrase
ὁ κάμηλος, -ου	the camel (male)	noun	B.a.β.i
ἡ τρίβος, -ου	the path	noun	B.a.β.i
ἡ ἐρημία, -ας	the wilderness	noun	B.a.α.ii
ὁ Μωϋσῆς, -έως	Moses	noun	B.a.γ.v
χωλός, -ή, -όν	lame	adjective	A.a.α

MorphologyMorphology: Verb – Aorist sigmatic plural

Just like the sg sigmatic Aorist, the endings for the pl are based on -σα:
The 1p and 2p use the same endings as the present, future, and thematic Aorist combined with -σα: -σα + -μεν = ἐ-λύ-σαμεν and -σα + - τε = ἐ-λύ-σατε.
The 3p thematic Aorist -ον (e.g. ἔλαβ-ον) is replaced with the σα ending to form -σαν (e.g. ἔ-λυ-σαν).

Morphology: Verb – Aorist sigmatic plural

	Singular	Plural
1st Person	ἔ-λυ-σα	ἐ-λύ-σαμεν
2nd Person	ἔ-λυ-σας	ἐ-λύ-σατε
3rd Person	ἔ-λυ-σε(ν)	ἔ-λυ-σαν

The same σ contraction rules that applied to the future (see 10.2.3.1) apply also to the sigmatic Aorist.

Morphology: Verb – Aorist sigmatic plural

	With σ	Present	Future	Aorist (Sigmatic)
π, β, φ	becomes ψ	βλέπω	βλέψω	ἔβλεψα
κ, γ, χ	becomes ξ	κράζω	κράξω	ἔκραξα
τ, δ, θ	drops, leaves σ	πείθω	πείσω	ἔπεισα
λ, μ, ν, ρ	σ drops	μένω	μενῶ	ἔμεινα

SemanticsSemantics: Verb – Aorist (3 – Inchoative)

Verb – Aorist: all 7 parts on one page →Also in Lesson 11.1, Lesson 12.1, Lesson 21.1, Lesson 24.2, Lesson 26.2, Lesson 31.2

An inchoative is when a state begins rather than ends. This is the distinction between something like Cooper is good at running (state holds) and Cooper got/became good at running (inchoative). In Greek, the idea of coming into a state can be expressed by using the Aorist with a stative verb:

Example 115Coming into a state

He then inquired about the hour in which he κομψότερον ἔσχεν [became better] (John 4:52)

The word κομψότερον means ‘improvement’ or ‘better,’ and ἔσχεν is the Aorist of ἔχω. The person asking the question is the father of the child who ‘became better,’ and he wants to know at what time his son started feeling better to see if Jesus was the cause. In other words, he wants to know when his son entered into a new state, a state that was better than what he was experiencing before.

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