Words, words, words
The more often we see the words in different contexts, the more often we "see" the realities they represent, the easier remembering them becomes. So always try and apply your imagination and your memories to the concrete representation of the abstract words presented in dry word-lists.
So what pictures do these words bring to mind:
ὁ ἀγρός (cf.agriculture,agronomy) real field, please: big,small,stony, ploughed
ὁ ἄνθρωπος (cf.anthropology - study of Man, anthropophagy - cannibalism)
man as opposed to beast, ancient man...
ὁ αὐτουργός is rather special. It refers to a self-employed Athenian farmer.
Normally farmer is:
ὁ γεωργός, George is a farmer. Have you seen any lately?
ὁ πόνος what do you look on as πόνος ?
ὁ οἶκος easy to imagine, big, small, beautiful, dilapidated, made of ....
ὁ σῖτος that's what a γεωργός produces
ὁ σῖτος is what's put on the table to eat
ὁ σῖτος is also grain chucked to fowls
πολύς polygamy, polyglot... Think of lots of money, trouble, pleasure....
Make sure you know what the following refer to
- ὁ ἄνθρωπος
- ὁ γεωργός
- ὁ αὐτουργός
- ὁ οἶκος
- ὁ ἀγρός
- ὁ πόνος
- πολύς
- ὁ σῖτος
Extra words
I know it says you don't have to learn these words. But since they are given, why not practice them a little, in context of course. They are good onces to know and use. Anyway, you decide what you want, or need to know.
We have:
an Ἀθηναῖος οἰκεῖ ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις (a different ending, a different function: position where?)
an αὐτουργὸς οἰκεῖ ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς (function: position where?, plural endings -οις, -αις)
ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς means "in the fields" (where? position)
So, using this information about position, we'd say:
ἐν οἴκοις (in houses) is where we live
ἐν κλήροις (on farms) is where corn is grown and cattle are kept
γεωργεῖ τὸν κλῆρον
Georges ὁ γεωργὸς γεωργεῖ τὸν κλῆρον
What does he γεωργεῖ ?
γεωργεῖ τὸν κλῆρον: his farm
γεωργεῖ τὸν ἀγρόν: his field
χαλεπὸς δέ ἐστιν ὁ βίος (biology = study of living organisms,
our biological parents gave us life,
a biography is a written account of somebody's life)
χαλεπός What do you find hard/difficult? life, work, Chinese....
ὁ πόνος ἐστὶ χαλεπός
ὁ πόνος ἐστὶν ἀτέλεστος / ἀπέραντος. Think of a situation where you'd complain:
ὁ πόνος ἐστὶν ἀπέραντος / ἀτέλεστος
What else do you find ἀπέραντος / ἀτέλεστος ? (endless winter, grammar lesson, bawling of baby, nagging of spouse...
In the new edition ἀτέλεστος is replaced by ἀπέραντος. Just use that instead of ἀτέλεστος. The meaning is more or less the same.
ἀτέλεστος is endless, without an end, like time
ἀπέραντος forever unfinished
ὁ ἀγρὸς πολὺν σῖτον παρέχει
ὁ ἀγρὸς οὐ πολὺν σῖτον παρέχει
ὁ βίος πολὺν πόνον παρέχει (yes? no? don't know?)
ἄοκνος (I'm ἄοκνος all right otherwise I wouldn't have produced all these many pages)
Are you ἄοκνος? ἄοκνος enough to learn all this Greek after a hard day's work? μετὰ τὸν χαλεπὸν τῆς ἡμέρας πόνον
πολλάκις στενάζει he often groans
Think of people (one at a time please, we don't know plural forms yet, except for ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς, ἐν ταῖς Αθήναις) who groan, constantly moan, never complain... There, see, we can use: no, always, often in conjunction with στενάζει Aren't we clever!?
οὐ στενάζει (does not)
αἰεὶ στενάζει (always does)
πολλάκις στενάζει (does often)
ἱκανόν ? Had enough for now? A little patience.
ἱκανὸς πόνος is fine, πολὺς πόνος is sometimes too much.
The same applies to ἱκανὸς σῖτος is just right, πολὺς σῖτος can be too much.
OK, ἱκανόν!