Updated 4/3/2019:
Greek Dictionary: List of Abbreviations & definitions.
acc. = Accommodation: In theology, it is the application of a passage to something not originally intended by it, on the ground of resemblance or analogy.
Accusative case’s main function is to show the direct object of a verb. You can find the direct object by finding the verb and asking “what?” (or “whom?”). For example: The dog ate (is the verb) the steak (stake is the accusative case). Or, the Lion chased = (verb) him = (the accusative case) for an hour.
Active verb. Those verbs are which not only signify action, but have a noun or name following them, denoting the object of the action or impression.
adj. = Adjective: a quality of the thing named. “A wise ruler.”
Adjun. = Adjunct: something added to another, but not essentially a part of it. Or a person joined to another. Such as “History of the American revolution.”
adv. = Adverb: a word used to modify the sense of a verb. “He writes well.”
aff. = Affix: to unite or attach a word at the end. “Affix a tag to a garment”
aor.= Aoris: in Greek, the noun AORIST has 1 sense: a verb tense in some languages (classical Greek and Sanskrit) expressing action (especially past action) without indicating its completion or continuation
Familiarity information: AORIST used as a noun is very rare.
Apodosis.
The principal clause of a conditional sentence, expressing the result. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” The former clause is the protasis, and the later the apodosis.
Apocop. To cut of the last letter or syllable of a word.
Apposition: a noun followed by another noun that explains.
Arab.= Arabic, from the Arabic language
assum. = Assumed
augm. = Augment: act of enlarging, or increasing.
Baby. = Babylonian.
Ben. = Benonie, or present participle.
Commodi.= Commodious, convenient, suitable, fit, proper, adopted to use or purpose.
Concr. = Concrete: a term that includes both the quality and the subject in which it exists.
Dat. = Dative, A term applied to the case of nouns which usually follows verbs that express giving, or some act directed to an object. Example, “It is given to you.” or “it was sent to him.”
Drop. = Dropped.
- = Common form, also of both genders.
Chald. = Chaldean, from the Chaldean language.
Coll. = Collectively with other verses
Compens. = Compensated
Concr. = Concrete: Giving the idea of solid, as poured in like cement.
Const.= Constructed, or in regimen
Convers. = Conversive, or convertible.
Depon. = De-po’nent: a verb in the Latin grammar, is a verb which has a passive termination, with an active signification, and wants one of the passive participles; as to speak.
Elliptic: An elliptical clause is a type of dependent, or subordinate, clause that is missing a word or words. Often, the missing part is a verb or verb phrase. While elliptical clauses are acceptable to use, they can sometimes cause confusion for writers and readers, especially when the sentence ends with a pronoun. Here’s an example of a sentence where the writer has to make a choice between the correct pronoun to use:
You are just as good at golfing as (her, she).
The verb is missing from the end of the clause, making it elliptical. Without considering the missing verb, some people might think that her is the correct pronoun to place at the end the sentence. But try pairing her with the verb is and then read the entire clause: as her is. Does it work? No. The appropriate pronoun to include here is she.
In this sentence, as she is the elliptical clause. If it were a complete dependent clause, it would be written, as she is.
He is a better drummer than (me, I).
(The verb am is missing from the elliptical clause. Than I am is correct; than me am is not.)
He is a better drummer than I.
I is the correct pronoun to use. Than I is the elliptical clause.)
Phil and Shirley can’t sing as loudly as (they, them).
Ethiop. = Etiopic, or native to Ethopia
euph.= Euphonic, or agreeable.
F.= Future.
f.= feminine. Words are said to be of the feminine gender, when they denote females, or have the termination proper to express females in any given language. For example in Latin “domina,” is mistress, a female.
3. m.s.= Third person masculine singular
2. m.s.= Second person masculine singular
1. c.s.=. First person common singular
2. m.p.= Second person masculine plural
3. f.p. = Third person feminine plural
n.m.s.= Noun masculine singular
n.f.p.= Noun feminine plural
n.f.s.= Noun feminine singular
gemin.= Geminatum.
Twins, or two of the same kind.
Gen. = Genitive.
A term applied to a case in the declension (variation) of nouns, adj. and pronouns expressing primarily the thing from which something else proceeds. As the son of a father, the water of a fountain. Particularly possession or ownership. As greatness of mind. Also, that which proceeds from something else, as the father of seven sons.
Gener. = Generality
Ger. = German, from the German language
Heb.= Hebraic, from the Hebrew language
Hiph.= Hiphil.
To perform something wonderful, make fat.
Imp.= Imperative.
Commanding, authoritative. For example, “Go, to the store.” The word “go” is in the imperative
Imperf.= Imperfect tense.
Denotes an action in time past, then present, but not finished.
Impl.= By implication.
Indicative: The indicative mood is a verb form which makes a statement or asks a question. Example, Jack sings every Friday. (This is a verb in the indicative mood.) Or, Sing us a song, Jack. (This verb is not in the indicative mood. It is in the imperative mood.) The vast majority of sentences are in the indicative mood. The main verb (i.e., the finite verb) in a declarative sentence (a statement) or an interrogative sentence (a question) will be in the indicative mood.
Inf. = Inferred
infin.= Infinitive mode expresses the action of the verb, without limitation. To go, to buy, to open.
Inten. = Intense: The doctrine of the atonement supposes that the sins of men were laid on Christ, that his sufferings were inconceivably intense and overwhelming.
Interrog.= Interrogatory, a question, or inquiry.
Intrans .= Intransitive, A verb that expresses action, that is limited to the agent, as in, as I walk, I ran, I sleep.
Irreg. = Irregular, not according to common form.
Jerus. = Jerusalem
Jos. = Flavius Josephus, first century Jewish historian.
K.= Kal. To hold, to contain, finish, complete.
Lat. = Latin, from the Latin Language
LXX.= Seventy, or Septuaigint
Meton. = Metonymically, from the Greek it means a change of name. Metonymy is a figure of speech (or trope) in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it’s closely associated (such as “crown” for “royalty”). Metonymy is also the rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, as in describing someone’s clothing to characterize the individual. As an adjective:
The Difference Between Metaphor and Metonymy “Metaphor creates the relation between its objects, while metonymy presupposes that relation.” (Hugh Bredin, “Metonymy.” Poetics Today, 1984)
“Metonymy and metaphor also have fundamentally different functions. Metonymy is about referring: a method of naming or identifying something by mentioning something else which is a component part or symbolically linked. In contrast, a metaphor is about understanding and interpretation: it is a means to understand or explain one phenomenon by describing it in terms of another.” (Murray Knowles and Rosamund Moon, Introducing Metaphor. Routledge, 2006)
“If metaphor works by transposing qualities from one plane of reality to another, metonymy works by associating meanings within the same plane. The representation of reality inevitably involves a metonym: we choose a part of ‘reality’ to stand for the whole. The urban settings of television crime serials are metonyms—a photographed street is not meant to stand for the street itself, but as a metonym of a particular type of city life–inner-city squalor, suburban respectability, or city-centre sophistication.” (John Fiske, Introduction to Communication Studies, 2nd ed. Routledge, 1992)
The Difference Between Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Metonymy resembles and is sometimes confused with the trope of synecdoche. While likewise based on a principle of contiguity, synecdoche occurs when a part is used to represent a whole or a whole to represent a part, as when workers are referred to as ‘hands’ or when a national football team is signified by reference to the nation to which it belongs: ‘England beat Sweden.’ As way of example, the saying that ‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’ illustrates the difference between metonymy and synecdoche. Here, ‘the hand’ is a synecdochic representation of the mother of whom it is a part, while ‘the cradle’ represents a child by close association.” (Nina Norgaard, Beatrix Busse, and Rocío Montoro, Key Terms in Stylistics. Continuum, 2010)
Semantic Metonymy, “An oft-cited example of metonymy is the noun tongue, which designates not only a human organ but also a human capacity in which the organ plays a conspicuous part. Another noted example is the change of orange from the name of a fruit to the color of that fruit. Since orange refers to all instances of the color, this change also includes generalization. A third example (Bolinger, 1971) is the verb want, which once meant ‘lack’ and changed to the contiguous sense of ‘desire.’ In these examples, both senses still survive.
“Such examples are established; where several meanings survive, we have semantic metonymy: the meanings are related and also independent of each other. Orange is a polysemic word, it’s two distinct and nondependent meanings metonymically related.” (Charles Ruhl, On Monosemy: A Study in Linguistic Semantics. SUNY Press, 1989)
Discourse-Pragmatic Functions of Metonymy: “One of the most important discourse-pragmatic functions of metonymy is to enhance cohesion and coherence of the utterance. It is something that is already at the very heart of metonymy as a conceptual operation where one content stands for another but both are actively activated at least to some degree. In other words, metonymy is an efficient way of saying two things for the price of one, i.e. two concepts are activated while only one is explicitly mentioned (cf. Radden & Kövecses 1999:19). This necessarily enhances the cohesion of an utterance because two topical concepts are referred to by means of one label, and there is consequently, at least nominally, less shifting or switching between these two topics.” (Mario Brdar and Rita Brdar-Szabó, “The (Non-)Metonymic Uses of Place Names in English, German, Hungarian, and Croatian.” Metonymy and Metaphor in Grammar, ed. by Klaus-Uwe Panther, Linda L. Thornburg, and Antonio Barcelona. John Benjamins, 2009)
Mid. = Middle term of a syllogism, is one with which the two extremes are separately compared, and by means of which they are brought together in the conclusion.
Neut. = Neuter, neither male or female.
N.T. = New Testament
O.T. = Old Testament
opp. = opposite, or opposed.
- = Plural
Part. = Participle: also, particle; a participle partakes of the properties of a noun and of a verb; as having of property, the making of an instrument, a word that is not varied.
Pass. = Passive: Expressing action, or the effect of an action of some agent.
Perfect tense: The present perfect tense is a verb tense used to express actions that occurred at a non-specific time. The present perfect tense is also used to express actions that started in the past but continue to the present. The present perfect tense expresses actions that happened at a time that is not specific. Actions of duration that occurred in the past (before now) of unspecified time. Actions that started in the past but continue to the present. Actions that started in the past but stopped recently. It is important to consider that the TIME of the present perfect tense is unknown.
Pluperf. = Plu-perfect: The tense which denotes that an action or event took place previous to another past action or event.
pp.= Past particle: Expresses completed action.
Praegn. = Of place, things previously known in order to understand something else.
Pres. = Present
Preterit. = Past; applied to the tense in grammar which expresses an action or being perfectly past or finished, just past, without a specification of time.
P.N. = Proper noun
- = Root
Rad . = Radical: Pertaining to the root or origin.
s.a.= Such as, or, as.
Sam. = Samaritan
Sanh. = Sanhedrim
Sept. = Septuagint: Greek version of O.T. The work of 72 interpreters.
Seq. = Present participle of sequel, “to follow.”
Subst. = Substantive: a noun or name, a part of speech which expresses something that exists.
Synecd. = Synecdoche: In rhetoric, a figure or trope, on which the whole of a thing is put for a part, or a part for the whole.
Synonym: NOUN: a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language, for example shut is a synonym of close.
Syr. = Syriac
Tal. = Talmud
Targ. = Targum
Trans.= Transitive verb: expressing action that passes from the agent to the object.
Trop.= Trope: a metaphor, metanymy, irony.
Viz.= To wit, that is namely.