ὅταν

See also: όταν and OTAN

Ancient Greek

Etymology

Univerbation of ὅτ’ (hót’, “when”) +‎ ἄν (án, modal particle).

Pronunciation

(5^th BCE Attic) IPA^(key): /hó.tan/
(1^st CE Egyptian) IPA^(key): /ˈ(h)o.tan/
(4^th CE Koine) IPA^(key): /ˈo.tan/
(10^th CE Byzantine) IPA^(key): /ˈo.tan/
(15^th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA^(key): /ˈo.tan/

Conjunction

ὅτᾰν • (hótăn)

(with a conditional force, about events likely to recur) whenever, when
- c. 385 BCE, Plato, Meno 88a:
  Σωκράτης σκόπει δή, ὅταν τί ἑκάστου τούτων ἡγῆται, ὠφελεῖ ἡμᾶς, καὶ ὅταν τί, βλάπτει.
  Sōkrátēs skópei dḗ, hótan tí hekástou toútōn hēgêtai, ōpheleî hēmâs, kaì hótan tí, bláptei.
  Socrates: Now look at what, when it guides each of these things, benefits us, and what, when it [guides things], harms [us].
- c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.519
- c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.6
- c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 2.397
- c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.567
- c. 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.225
- 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 301
- 375 BCE, Plato, The Republic 565A

Usage notes

Like ἐάν (eán), only used with subjunctive.

Descendants

Coptic: ϩⲟⲧⲁⲛ (hotan)
Greek: όταν (ótan)

Further reading

“ὅταν”, in Liddell & Scott (1940), A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“ὅταν”, in Liddell & Scott (1889), An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
“ὅταν”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891), A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
ὅταν in Bailly, Anatole (1935), Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
“ὅταν”, in Slater, William J. (1969), Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
G3752 in Strong, James (1979), Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
Woodhouse, S. C. (1910), English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎^[1], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
- crowning idem, page 187.
- whenever, whensoever idem, page 975.