Is there a good (but free) resource for learning synonyms found in classical Greek? For example, so far I’ve come across the following verbs that can mean “receive” (though they may also have other meanings depending on the context, author or period):
λαμβάνω
(ἀνα)δέχομαι
κομίζω
And I’m sure there are others. Has anyone put together a list of common Greek synonyms and made it available online somewhere?
Thanks! –Mitch
I hope not. That would efface their differences.
Hmm. But one could briefly list how such words are similar and different…
Hi Mitch - the best option I know of is Woodhouse’s English-Greek dictionary, handily located on the University of Chicago’s website, here. You just enter the English word and it will take you to the entry, giving you various Greek words, broken down by specific meaning where relevant.
Here he is on λαμβάνειν (not effacing differences that I can see)
I have another 19th century pdf somewhere that I will post if I can find it.
Thanks guys for those two resources, I’ve found them on archive.org and downloaded them as PDFs. Woodhouse seems more useful as it seems to try and list all the compound verbs formed by prefixation. For example if I search for the entry for the English word “receive” it gives not only λαμβάνω but also the απο–, εκ–, παρα–, προ–, προσ–, αντι- and ανταπο– forms of the verb and glosses their possible meaning. But it’s missing the μετα– form, hah! And the entry also clued me into α possible “receive” meaning of the verbs φέρω and ξενίζω in certain contexts. But overall I now think trying to learn Greek synonyms probably has limited value and that it’s better to just read lots of Greek from different authors/periods to gradually learn from context – and with frequent reference to the Cambridge Greek Lexicon – the variation and scope of meaning of individual Greek words.
Döderlein’s book is probably not exactly what you are looking for, however, it’s useful and cool, and maybe it actually is a part of what you need.
The title says “Latin” but it covers Greek too, and discusses synonyms across Greek and Latin.
Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/33197/pg33197.txt (includes index of Greek words)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33197
As PDF (no index of Greek words, darn):
As HTML (includes index of Greek words):
This book is mentioned here along with another useful book,
Horae Latinae: Studies In Synonyms and Syntax
