Verb-stems

A Greek verb has two kinds of stems: (1) the tense-stem, to which the endings are attached, and (2) a common verb-stem (also called theme) from which all the tense-stems are derived. The tense-stem is usually made from the verb-stem by prefixing a reduplication-syllable (439), and by affixing signs for mood (457, 459) and tense (455). A tense-stem may be identical with a verbstem.

There are two kinds of stems: noun-stems (substantive and adjective) and verb-stems.

a. The second aorist and the second perfect are usually formed only from primitive verbs (372). These tenses are formed by adding the personal endings (inclusive of the thematic or tense vowel) to the verb-stem without any consonant tense-suffix. Cp. ἔλιπο-ν with ἔλῡ-σ-α, ἐτράπ-ην with ἐτρέφ-θ-ην (τρέπω turn), γέ-γραφ-α with λέλυ-κ-α.

b. The second perfect and second aorist passive are historically older than the corresponding first perfect and first aorist.

c. τρέπω turn is the only verb that has three first aorists and three second aorists (596).

d. Very few verbs have both the second aorist active and the second aorist passive. In cases where both occur, one form is rare, as ἔτυπον (once in poetry), ἐτύπην (τύπτω strike).

e. In the same voice both the first and the second aorist (or perfect) are rare, as ἔφθασα, ἔφθην (φθάνω anticipate). When both occur, the first aorist (or perfect) is often transitive, the second aorist (or perfect) is intransitive (819); as ἔστησα I erected, i.e. made stand, ἔστην I stood. In other cases one aorist is used in prose, the other in poetry: ἔπεισα, poet. ἔπιθον (πείθω persuade); or they occur in different dialects, as Attic ἐτάφην, Ionic ἐθάφθην (θάπτω bury); or one is much later than the other, as ἔλειψα, late for ἔλιπον.

The first part of a compound may be a noun-stem, a verbstem, a numeral, a preposition or adverb, or an inseparable prefix.

a. The use of stems in composition is a survival of a period in the history of language in which inflections were not fully developed.