Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• θ’ ‎(th’) apocopic before a rough breathing
• τ’ ‎(t’) apocopic before a smooth breathing

Conjunction

τε • ‎(te)

1. and, also or untranslatable
   1. (after each item in a list) and
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.544

        Τὴν δ’ ἠμείβετ’ ἔπειτα πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε·

        Then the father of men and gods answered her:

   2. (combined with καί ‎(kaí), untranslatable)
      • 386 BCE – 367 BCE, Plato, Meno 75.d

        εἰ δὲ ὥσπερ ἐγώ τε καὶ σὺ νυνὶ φίλοι ὄντες βούλοιντο ἀλλήλοις διαλέγεσθαι, δεῖ δὴ πρᾳότερόν πως καὶ διαλεκτικώτερον ἀποκρίνεσθαι.

        But if, like you and I now, they were friends and chose to converse together, it is appropriate to answer in a somewhat more easygoing and conversational manner.

      • 430 BCE – 354 BCE, Xenophon, Anabasis 1.2.7

        ἐνταῦθα Κύρῳ βασίλεια ἦν καὶ παράδεισος μέγας ἀγρίων θηρίων πλήρης, ἃ ἐκεῖνος ἐθήρευεν ἀπὸ ἵππου, ὁπότε γυμνάσαι βούλοιτο ἑαυτόν τε καὶ τοὺς ἵππους.

        There Cyrus had a palace and a large garden full of wild animals, which he would hunt from a horse, whenever he wanted to exercise himself and his horses.

Usage notes

τε is usually considered to denote a weaker connection than καί ‎(kaí). As an enclitic, it is placed after the word that it connects, or after the first word of a phrase that it connects:

• 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 1.7

  [Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν] καὶ [δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς]

  [the son of Atreus, lord of men,] and [noble Achilles]

Derived terms

• οἷός τ’ εἰμί ‎(hoîós t’ eimí, “be able”)

References

• τε in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• τε in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• «τε» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• «τε» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• τε in Slater, William J. (1969) Lexicon to Pindar, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
• “G5037”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • and idem, page 29.
  • both . . . and idem, page 90.