Aorist (Ancient Greek)

In the grammar of Ancient Greek, an aorist (pronounced /ˈeɪ.ərɪst/ or /ˈɛərɪst/) (from the Ancient Greek ἀόριστος aóristos - ‘undefined’) is a type of verb that carries certain information about a grammatical feature called aspect. For example, an English speaker might say either "The tree died" or "The tree was dying," which communicate similar things about the tree but differ in aspect. In ancient Greek, these would be stated, respectively, in the aorist and imperfect. The aorist describes an event as a complete action rather than one that was ongoing, unfolding, repeated, or habitual.

The vast majority of usages of the aorist also describe events or conditions in past time, and traditional grammars introduce it as a past tense.^[1] However, it is often idiomatic to use the aorist to refer to present time. For example, "Go to school today" would be expressed using the aorist imperative, since the speaker is giving a command to do an action at one point in time, rather than "Keep going to school." Some modern linguists describe the aorist as solely an aspect, claiming that any information about time comes from context.^[2]

The aorist is in most cases clearly distinguished by its form. In late prose, it is mandatory for the aorist to have a prefix or lengthened initial syllable called an augment. It often has an infixed "s" (σ) or "th" (θ) sound (for active and passive voices, respectively), and it takes a particular set of endings. For example, "I loosen" is expressed in the present tense as λύω (lúō), while "I loosened" in the aorist aspect is ἔλυσα (élusa).