# αὐτός
## Ancient Greek
### Alternative forms

* ἀϝτός (awtós) — Cretan
* αὑτός (hautós) — crasis with ὁ (ho)
* αὐτοσί (autosí) — emphatic

### Etymology

According to Beekes, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ew (“again, away from”) + *to- (“that”); compare Proto-Germanic *auþijaz (“barren, empty”). Risch derives it from the Ancient Greek reflexes of those words, αὖ (aû, “back, again, other”) +‎ τόν (tón, “the”). Related to Phrygian αυτος (autos), thus probably representing a common innovation.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /au̯.tós/ → /aɸˈtos/ → /afˈtos/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /au̯.tós/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /aʍˈtos/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /aɸˈtos/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /afˈtos/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /afˈtos/

### Pronoun

αὐτός • (autós) (feminine αὐτή, neuter αὐτό); first/second declension
* (without article) self
** (in nominative, emphasizing the subject)
** (reflexive pronoun, in oblique cases) himself, herself, itself, themselves
** (in philosophy, of an abstract idea) by or in itself
* (without article, in oblique cases, 3rd person personal pronoun) he, she, it, they
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 5.260–261, (wherein αὐτῇ refers to σχεδίην in line 251):ἐν δ’ ὑπέρας τε κάλους τε πόδας τ’ ἐνέδησεν ἐν αὐτῇ, μοχλοῖσιν δ’ ἄρα τήν γε κατείρυσεν εἰς ἅλα δῖαν.en d’ hupéras te kálous te pódas t’ enédēsen en autêi, mokhloîsin d’ ára tḗn ge kateírusen eis hála dîan.1919 translation by Augustus Taber MurrayAnd he made fast in the raft braces and halyards and sheets, and then with levers forced it down into the bright sea.
* (with definite article) same

#### Usage notes

The intended sense of αὐτός is generally defined by its grammatical context. When used as a lone nominal without an article, it is generally the third person personal pronoun. When appended to a nominal and not possessing the definite article it is "self". When combined with the definite article, either appended to a nominal or on its own, it is "same".
The neuter plural ταὐτά (tautá, “the same things”) (derived from τὰ αὐτά by crasis) is distinguished from ταῦτα (taûta) "these things" by the accent placement. The two sometimes occur together:
    οὗτος γὰρ ποιήσει περὶ πάσης γεωμετρίας ταὐτὰ ταῦτα, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων μαθημάτων ἁπάντων
       hoûtos gàr poiḗsei perì pásēs geōmetrías tautà taûta, kaì tôn állōn mathēmátōn hapántōn
       For he will do the same as this with all geometry and every other branch of knowledge.

#### Derived terms

* αὐτερέτης (auterétēs)
* αὐτοπαγής (autopagḗs)
* αὐτοσχεδόν (autoskhedón)
* αὑτοῦ (hautoû)
* ἑαυτοῦ (heautoû)
* ἐμαυτοῦ (emautoû)
* σαυτοῦ (sautoû)
* σεαυτοῦ (seautoû)
* ταὐτότης (tautótēs)

#### Descendants

* Greek: αυτός (aftós)
** → Turkish: aftos
* Mariupol Greek: тос (tos), ато́с (atós)

### References

* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “αὐτός”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 173

### Further reading

* “αὐτός”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “αὐτός”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “αὐτός”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
* αὐτός in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
* αὐτός in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
* αὐτός in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2025)
* “αὐτός”, in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
* G846 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
* αὐτός in Trapp, Erich, et al. (1994–2007) Lexikon zur byzantinischen Gräzität besonders des 9.-12. Jahrhunderts [the Lexicon of Byzantine Hellenism, Particularly the 9th–12th Centuries], Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
* Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English–Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language‎, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited. abstract idem, page 4.himself idem, page 400.myself idem, page 549.oneself idem, page 574.person idem, page 608.personally idem, page 608.self idem, page 750.singly idem, page 779.thyself idem, page 873.yourself idem, page 997.
* Herbert Weir Smyth (1920) A Greek grammar for colleges. American Book Company.
* Ernst Risch (1937) Wortbildung der homerischen Sprache. Berlin. 314.