Ancient Greek

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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    From Proto-Hellenic *apó, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (off, away).[1]

    Cognates include Mycenaean Greek 𐀀𐀢 (a-pu), Sanskrit अप (ápa, away, off), Latin ab (from), Proto-Slavic *po, and Proto-Germanic *ab (English of; see also after), Albanian pa (without).

    The genitive is from the PIE ablative of separation or cause.

    Pronunciation

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    Preposition

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    ᾰ̓πό (ăpó) (governs the genitive)

    1. from, away from
    2. because of, as a result of
    3. in the name of

    Usage notes

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    As is the case with most Greek prepositions, ἀπό is a versatile word which can take the idiom of a number of English words. To further complicate matters, in Koine Greek, the distinctions between various prepositions are often blurred, leading to ἀπό fulfilling functions classically reserved for words such as ἐκ, ὑπό, and παρά.

    Derived terms

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    Descendants

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    • Greek: από (apó)

    References

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    1. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “ἀπό”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 117

    Further reading

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