# ἐρωτάω
## Ancient Greek
### Alternative forms

* εἰρωτᾰ́ω (eirōtáō) — Epic

### Etymology

Related to ἐρεείνω (ereeínō, “to ask”), ἔρομαι (éromai, “to ask”) (which it replaced in Attic), ἐρευνάω (ereunáō, “to search, inquire”), of uncertain origin. The hypothetical reconstructed root, Proto-Indo-European *h₁rew- (“to search, inquire”), appears to be related to Icelandic raun (“trial, test”) and Old Armenian որոնեմ (oronem, “to seek, search for”) (though there exist phonetic issues with the Armenian).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /e.rɔː.tá.ɔː/ → /e.roˈta.o/ → /e.roˈta.o/
* (5th BCE Attic) IPA: /e.rɔː.tá.ɔː/
* (1st CE Egyptian) IPA: /e.roˈta.o/
* (4th CE Koine) IPA: /e.roˈta.o/
* (10th CE Byzantine) IPA: /e.roˈta.o/
* (15th CE Constantinopolitan) IPA: /e.roˈta.o/

### Verb

ἐρωτᾰ́ω • (erōtáō)
* to ask
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 4.347
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 17.138
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 9.364
** 429 BCE, Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1122
** 423 BCE, Aristophanes, The Clouds 641
** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 895E
** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Cyropaedia 1.4.3
** to ask about a thing
*** 525 BCE – 455 BCE, Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 226
*** 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 508A
*** 366 BCE – 348 BCE, Plato, Theaetetus 185C
*** 460 BCE – 395 BCE, Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.61
*** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 4.2.23
*** 428 BCE – 347 BCE, Plato, Laws 662D
** (followed by a relative word)
*** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 15.423
*** 460 BCE – 370 BCE, Hippocrates, Collected Works 682.46
*** 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 182
*** 446 BCE – 386 BCE, Aristophanes, The Acharnians 648
* to question
** 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Odyssey 5.97
** 480 BCE – 411 BCE, Antiphon of Rhamnus, Collected Works 144.7
** 413 BCE, Euripides, Ion 236
** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 3.1.7
** 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Memorabilia 1.3.1
** 407 BCE, Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 1130
** (in dialectic argument) to elicit conclusions from the opponent by means of questioning
*** 384 BCE – 322 BCE, Aristotle, Prior Analytics 1.1.3
*** 125 CE – 200 CE, Lucian, How to Write History 17
* (Koine) to beg, entreat, solicit
** 300 BCE – 200 BCE, 1 Samuel 30.21
** 50 CE – 100 CE, The Gospel of Luke 8:37
** 50 CE – 100 CE, The Gospel of Luke 7:36
** 50 CE – 100 CE, The Gospel of Luke 7:3
** 50 CE – 100 CE, The Gospel of John 16:26

#### Usage notes

In the dialogues of Plato, ἠρόμην (ērómēn) typically supplies the aorist tense-forms for ἐρωτάω.

#### Inflection

* The future and aorist forms of ἔρομαι (éromai) often supply those tenses of this verb.

#### Derived terms

* ἐρώτημα (erṓtēma, “question”)

#### Descendants

* Byzantine Greek: (ἐ)ρωτῶ ((e)rōtô)
** Greek: ρωτώ (rotó), ρωτάω (rotáo)

### References

* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἐρωτάω”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 469
* ↑ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἐρευνάω”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 455-6
* ↑ pp. 44-47, section 16.2. Albert Rijksbaron. The Syntax and Semantics of the Verb in Classical Greek. University of Chicago Press, 2006.

### Further reading

* “ἐρωτάω”, in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “ἐρωτάω”, in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “ἐρωτάω”, in Autenrieth, Georg (1891) A Homeric Dictionary for Schools and Colleges, New York: Harper and Brothers
* ἐρωτάω in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
* G2065 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
* ἐρωτάω 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