# ὀφείλω
## Ancient Greek
### Alternative forms

* ὀφέλλω (ophéllō) — Epic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot
* ὀφήλω (ophḗlō) — Cretan, Arcadocypriot

### Etymology

From Proto-Hellenic *opʰéľľō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰélyeti, from *h₃bʰel- (whence ὄφελος (óphelos)).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /o.pʰěː.lɔː/ → /oˈɸi.lo/ → /oˈfi.lo/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /o.pʰěː.lɔː/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /oˈpʰi.lo/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /oˈɸi.lo/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /oˈfi.lo/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /oˈfi.lo/

### Verb

ὀφείλω • (opheílō)
* to owe
** 414 BCE, Aristophanes, The Birds 115
** 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 21
** 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 117
** 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 485
** 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 1135
** 425 BCE, Aristophanes, Lysistrata 581
** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1167b.21
** 310 BCE – 240 BCE, Callimachus, Fr. 126
** 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.52
** 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 5.99
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 11.688
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 3.367
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 8.332
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 8.462
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 21.17
** 362 BCE – 262 BCE, Philemon, Collected Works 163
** 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 331b
** 46 CE – 120 CE, Plutarch, Moralia 2.832a
** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 1.2.11
** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 7.7.34
** (figuratively)
*** 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Fragments 315
*** 458 BCE, Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers 310
*** 175 CE – 235 CE, Claudius Aelianus, Various History 10.5
*** 416 BCE, Euripides, Herakles 287
*** 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Olympian Ode 10.3
*** 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 335e
*** 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 1.137
*** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 4.5.32
*** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 7.2.28
** (law) to incur
*** 361 BCE, Demosthenes, Against Midias 77
*** 425 BCE, Euripides, Andromache 360
*** 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, On the Murder of Eratosthenes 32
*** 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, For the Soldier 10
*** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 774b
*** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 844e
*** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 909a
** (passive voice, of persons) to be due or liable to
*** 300 BCE – 200 BCE, Septuagint, Wisdom of Solomon 12.20
*** 556 BCE – 468 BCE, Simonides, Fragmenta 122
*** Palatine Anthology 9.283
* (with infinitive) to be bound, obligated, to ought, to should, to have to
** 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Fragments 456
** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1104a.2
** 438 BCE, Euripides, Alcestis 419
** 438 BCE, Euripides, Alcestis 682
** 408 BCE, Euripides, Orestes 1245
** 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 1.41
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 19.200
** 445 BCE – 380 BCE, Lysias, Defence against a Charge of subverting the Democracy 11
** 497 BCE – 405 BCE, Sophocles, Electra 1173
** 409 BCE, Sophocles, Philoctetes 1421
* (impersonal) it behooves
** 300 BCE – 250 BCE, Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica 3.678
** 522 BCE – 443 BCE, Pindar, Nemean Ode 2.6
** 50 CE – 150 CE, Soranus, Collected Works 1.79

#### Derived terms

* ἀντοφείλω (antopheílō)
* ἐνοφείλω (enopheílō)
* ἐποφείλω (epopheílō)
* προοφείλω (proopheílō)
* προσοφείλω (prosopheílō)
* σῠνοφείλω (sŭnopheílō)

#### Related terms

* ὀφειλέσιον (opheilésion)
* ὀφειλέτης (opheilétēs)
* ὀφειλέω (opheiléō)
* ὀφειλή (opheilḗ)
* ὀφείλημᾰ (opheílēmă)
* ὀφείλησῐς (opheílēsĭs)
* ὀφλισκάνω (ophliskánō)
* ὠφέλεια (ōphéleia)
* ὠφελέω (ōpheléō)
* ὠφέλιμος (ōphélimos)

#### Descendants

* ⇒ Greek: όφελος (ófelos)
* ⇒ Greek: ωφέλεια (oféleia)
* →⇒ English: anopheles
* →⇒ Italian: Ofelia
** →⇒ English: Ophelia
** →⇒ French: Ophélie

### Further reading

* “ὀφείλω”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “ὀφείλω”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “ὀφείλω”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
* ὀφείλω in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
* Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
* “ὀφείλω”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
* G3784 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
* Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited. beholden to idem, page 72.bound idem, page 90.debt idem, page 199.debtor idem, page 199.due idem, page 255.oblige idem, page 565.ought idem, page 581.owe idem, page 587.
* Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN