# οἴομαι
## Ancient Greek
### Alternative forms

* ὀΐομαι (oḯomai) — Homeric
* οἶμαι (oîmai) — Attic

### Etymology

For earlier ὀϝίομαι (owíomai), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew- (“perceive”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ǒi̯.o.mai̯/ → /ˈy.o.mɛ/ → /ˈi.o.me/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /ǒi̯.o.mai̯/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /ˈy.o.mɛ/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /ˈy.o.mɛ/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /ˈy.o.me/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /ˈi.o.me/

### Verb

οἴομαι • (oíomai)
* to anticipate or to conclude likely with less than complete evidence: to conjecture, to guess or to surmise, in a variety of significations
** to consider certain or highly probable: to expect, to look to, to look for
** to have a presentiment of something: to forebode, to foretell, to predict, to presage
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 13.283
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 10.248
** to look for a contingency: to hope, to fear
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 24.401
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.339
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 10.380
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.390
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 14.298
** to express full persuasion, either modestly or ironically: to think, to suppose
    Synonym: προσδοκᾰ́ω (prosdokáō)
** (when the event rests with oneself): to have in mind as a goal or motive for action: to aim, to mean, to intend, to purport, to purpose, to propose
** to conceive, to deem, to imagine, to suspect (of an opinion or judgment)
    Synonym: σκέπτομαι (sképtomai)
* (construction)
** (with accusative and infinitive, mostly with future infinitive)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.78
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.252
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.204
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 20.195
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.453
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 10.232
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 1.323
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.894
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.558
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 3.27
** (with infinitive)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 6.341
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.296
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.215
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 13.262
*** (sometimes the subject of the infinitive is to be supplied from the context)
**** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 15.278
**** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 1.201
**** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 12.212
**** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 12.66
** (absolute)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.561
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 9.453
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 15.443
** (impersonal)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 19.312
** (transitive) to wait for, look for
*** (in many cases an infinitive must be supplied from the context)
** (used parenthetically, mostly in the first-person)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 8.536
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 16.309
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 13.153
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 2.255
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 22.140
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 14.363
*** 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers 758
*** 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 486C
*** 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 147B
*** 385 BCE – 380 BCE, Plato, Symposium 216D
*** (in Attic)
**** (expressive of modesty or courtesy, to avoid over-great bluntness of assertion)
***** 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 483C
***** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1.3.11
***** 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 564A
***** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Leptines 3
***** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Conon 38
**** (answering a question, expressive of positive certainty) to believe you, of course, no doubt
***** 446 BCE – 386 BCE, Aristophanes, The Acharnians 919
***** 411 BCE, Aristophanes, Thesmophoriazusae 27
***** 400 BCE – 387 BCE, Plato, Crito 47D
***** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Protagoras 325C
***** 400 BCE – 387 BCE, Plato, Crito 53D
***** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Phaedo 68B
***** 380 BCE, Plato, Gorgias 522A
** (peculiar Attic phrases)
*** (as a parenthetic question) πῶς οἴει, πῶς οἴεσθε ― pôs oíei, pôs oíesthe ― how think you?
**** 405 BCE, Aristophanes, The Frogs 54
*** οἴομαι δεῖν ― oíomai deîn ― to hold it necessary, think it one's duty (see δέω (déō))
*** 386 BCE – 367 BCE, Plato, Meno 95C
*** 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 207E
*** 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 143
*** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Demosthenes, Funeral Speech 31
*** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Protagoras 316C
*** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 2.6.26
*** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 4.6.3
*** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1152A.6
*** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1136B.8
*** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Hipparchus 225B
*** 406 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 28
*** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Second Alcibiades 144D

#### Usage notes

Homer has forms with diaeresis, and several forms of the present middle often have long ῑ for the sake of meter; otherwise ὀίομαι (oíomai), for instance, would begin in short–short–short, which is unmetrical.

#### Inflection

See also ὀῑ̈́ω (oī̈́ō)

#### Derived terms

* (from the syncopated Attic form) ἐγᾦμαι (egôimai)

### References

* “οἴομαι”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “οἴομαι”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “οἴομαι”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
* οἴομαι in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette