2. A good deal of the definitions given here will, I fear, not satisfy the linguists, but I hope to enlighten  the layman without devoting too much space to it; for more scientific definitions consult the real grammarians and grammars. A good deal of the explanations
was designed specially to explain ancient Greek grammatical phenomena.

3. I have to thank the Penguin English Dictionary, 2^nd edition, for helping me out of difficult spots.

ablaut: change of vowels inside the formative system of one word, e.g. drive, drove

accent: stressing a syllable (q.v.) by higher tone than the others or louder pronunciation or both

accusative: case (q.v.) used for that at which the action of the verb is directed; there are many more functions of the Greek accusative

action: most simple sentences contain a word denoting some form of doing or being something, which is the action of this sentence

active: class of verb forms that impart the information that the action is performed by the subject, as against passive, q.v.

acutus: type of accent (q.v.) that stresses by a higher tone or more energetic pronunciation

adhortative: incitatory sense of certain verb forms

adjective: type of word by which other words (viz. substantives, q.v.) are qualified (e.g. He is a clumsy fellow)

adjunct: any  part of a sentence amplifying any other part (e.g. I certainly hope he will bring home some useful information as to the next agenda)

adverb: type of word whereby verbs or other qualifying words are qualified (e.g. he expertly scored from a very difficult angle)

adverbial: function of qualifying verbs or other qualifying words

agree(ment): the phenomenon that certain words for correctness necessitate certain forms of other words (e.g. the horse galops, the horses galop, une belle femme, un beau garçon)

anaphoric: pronominal function of referring to a thing (or person) without using the word for it, e.g. : "Poems usually bore me. They are needlessly difficult."

aorist: class of Greek verb forms (phase of the Greek verb, q.v.) that have as speciality that they simply point out the action, without reference to duration or permanence.

article: words comparable to English ‘the’ (definite article) & ‘an’ (indefinite article) [Greek has no indefinite article]

asper (spiritus --): ‘rough breath’, meaning an initial h-

aspirated: property of consonants, meaning that the consonant is accompanied by a following (but not written) -h- sound as in English words beginning with c-, t- and p- followed by vowel (cook, tar, penthouse). Spirit (q.v.) is a way of noting initial aspiration before vowel

athematic: type of Greek verb forms that lack a so-called ‘thematic vowel’ (q.v.)

attributive: purely qualifying a substantive, as against predicative (q.v.)

augment: element of Greek (and some other) verb forms prefixed to the stem, occurring in past indicatives (q.v.)

canon: Greek grammar having older claims to the use of this word than even the church, I use it in the sense of standard rule, or set of rules

canonical: in Greek grammar (q.v.) verb forms made according to certain frequent (and therefore regarded as regular) rules

case: form of a substantive (q.v.), pronoun (q.v.) or adjective (q.v.) that is prompted by the function they have in the sentence (q.v.) (e.g. There he goes, I can see him. The person designated by ‘he’ and ‘him’ is first subject (q.v.) and then object (q.v.)

causal: type of adjunct that elucidates the cause of the action (q.v.)

circumflexus: type of accent that denotes a lowering tone on one vowel or diphthong

circumstance to the action: qualification of the action of a sentence, e.g. ‘though full of bookish knowledge, he hardly ever finds correct answers’

clause: group of words containing a single finite verb (q.v.)

comitative: type of adjunct that elucidates the company in which the action is performed, e.g. He came in with his elder brother.

comparative: word, or form of a word, that by it’s nature introduces a notion of difference between things or actions in the sentence: My brother is heavier than I; He outdistanced us

comparison: (grades of --) system of forms of adjectives and adverbs that permit comparing the measure of the property in different substantives (e.g. I have a big nose, my father has a bigger, bur my brother has the biggest)

compensatory lengthening: in Greek (and possibly elsewhere) the disappearance of a consonant from a word is sometimes attended by lengthening of a vowel (e.g. χαριεντς, from which the –ντ- is dropped and the ε- lenghtened > χαριεις, or the aorist ἤγγελσα>ἤγγειλα)

complement: some words are all but unthinkable unless accompanied by another word (or set of words), such as for example ‘with’, ‘desirous’; this other word is called the complement. Of course such a verb as ‘to give’ also needs complements, but then one speaks of objects

composite: a word is dubbed ‘composite’ when one can discern in it only parts that also exist as separate words; examples: ‘overrule’, ‘henbane’

compound: same meaning as ‘composite’

concessive: type of verbal adjunct that gives a surprising or conflicting circumstance attending the action (q.v.) (e.g. though hardly noticeable he has great influence on all our decisions)

congruence: same meaning as ‘agreement’

congruent: same meaning as ‘agreeing’

conjugation: system of producing different forms of a verb to mark different functions or other differences; so, in English, the verb ‘to have’ contains the forms ‘have’, ‘has’, ‘had’, ‘having’

conjunction: word that has the function of joining two sentences or sentences to clauses, such as ‘but’, ‘though’ (I have little, but he has less.’; ‘My income is low, though I work hard for it.’)

consonant: sound (or letter representing that sound) made by the speech organs by partial or complete blockage of the flow of breath, such as ‘p’, ‘s’. (as opposed to vowel, q.v.)

conspectus: succinct presentation of facts that give a complete overview of a certain system, here also synopsis.

contraction: melting into one of two juxtaposed vowels

copulative (-- verb): verb that has as function to couple a property to a substantive, e.g. ‘He seems mad, but he is no half-wit.’

dative: form in a case system specially used as indirect object (q.v.); in Greek this case has many other functions that have nothing to do with indirect object

declension: system of producing different forms of a noun to mark different functions or other differences; so, the pronoun ‘this’ has the plural form ‘these’

defective: said of words that lack a part of the normal system of forms, e.g. a verb that has no aorist and/or  perfect etc.

deictic: pronominal function of pointing out something

demonstrative: pronoun (q.v.) that has as it’s function to point out something already known without using the word itself. e.g. I have a car. That enables me to get around.

dentals: type of consonant (q.v.) formed by the tongue touching the front part of the palate immediately over the teeth, and thus momentarily blocking or impeding the flow of the breath

deponent: type of verb that has in it’s conjugation no active forms

determination: by this I mean the process of tracking down which one a given form is, of which lexical head word; in Greek with it’s complex declensions and conjugations this  entails appreciably more work than in English that has very few forms per head word

dialect: even a quite short distance away from your own home the language spoken shows differences from your own; people speak not a different or unintelligible language, but a different dialect. Ancient Greek makes no exception to this rule. Also various literary genres are connected to different dialects. Ancient Greek dialects: Aeolic, Boeotian, Doric, Epic (q.v.), Ionic (q.v.),  Mycenaean, West-Greek. Of course one could further refine by naming sub-dialects, such as Chian, sub-dialect of Ionic etc.

dictionary: for those foolhardy ones that aspire to a knowledge of Greek without knowing what a dictionary is: alphabetically ordered list of conventionally chosen forms of words (one form per word) in a certain language that may cover a multiplicity of other forms of the same word, accompanied by the sense(s) of that word in another, or the same,  language [in our case Greek forms with English meanings]

diphthongue: combination of two vowels (q.v.) that together count for one syllable, as in "choice"

dual a) type of noun forms that convey the information that the user means two of whatever the noun represents (and agreeing adjectives), b) type of verb forms that convey the information that the user has a twofold subject in mind

dubitative: function of certain verb forms that convey the information that the user is in doubt whether or no the action is, or should be, performed; in Greek this is only a secondary meaning of verb forms (the subjunctive) that have another main function

durative: type of verb form that conveys the information that the user wishes to present the action as ongoing

enclitic: for accentuation purposes forming one entity with preceding word

ending: last part of an inflected form (noun or verb) which mostly contains the variable function-determining as against the (preceding) stem, which contains the meaning, as in ‘horse/s’: first part: it’s about that big beast we all know well enough/second part: there are more than one of them

Epic dialect: the first writer in Greek, Homer, wrote epic poetry (poetry containing stories-of-old about heroes, gods and wars etc.) He uses a dialect not quite like any other in Greek, the epic dialect. Many writers affect a dialect with some epic influence: epicizing

feminine: class of substantives (q.v.) that demand a certain set of adjective agreeing forms; this class is caled ‘feminine’, because (as good as) all words denoting females (besides a lot more) belong to it

final: type of verbal adjunct that discloses the purpose of the action

finalis: concerning the purpose of actions etc.

function: sentences (messages by words, as it were) on analysis have many common traits. Most contain a word (or words) describing an action (the ‘predicate’), and then of course a word (or words) denoting who (or what) performs this action (the ‘subject’); more often than not the action is directed at something or someone, also present in the sentence denoted by a word (or words) (the ‘object’); attendant circumstances (such as time, place, reason etc.) may also be given by means of a word (or words) (‘adjuncts’) and so on and so forth. These common parts of the sentence have received the collective name of ‘function’.

futuralis: use of the Greek subjunctive (q.v.) in secondary clauses (with frequent addition of ἂν/κε)  attached to a main clause that somehow contains a future action (an actual future, an imperative, a wish, etc.); this does not mean that every clause attached to a "future" has this subjunctive.

future: type of verb form that imparts the information that the action will be performed at some time after the present of the speaker

gender: every case of a substantive (in Greek and many other languages) demands of a determining adjective one particular case ending, no other being correct; analysis of all Greek adjective case endings shows for some adjectives three different sets of endings, named the ‘masculine’, the ‘feminine’ and ‘neuter’ sets, because all words denoting men (besides countless others) take the first set, all words denoting women (besides countless others) take the second set, whilst the neuter set is taken only by substantives (by no means all, however) denoting neither man nor woman. Adjectives that lack a separate feminine set are not rare. Partial overlap of endings abounds.

generalis: use of the Greek subjunctive (with frequent addition of ἂν/κε) in certain secondary clauses attached to main clauses that state a generality

genetive: case of substantives (or pronouns or adjectives that have the function of a substantive) that is used, broadly speaking, to mark a relationship of this substantive to another, to mark separation and various other functions

genus (nominal): is the collective name for masculine, feminine and neuter

--(verbal): the totality of forms of most Greek verbs shows a class that has the subject actually perform the action (active), a class that has the subject subjected to it (passive) and a class that has the subject also be object of the action (middle or medium); the collective name for these three classes is ‘genera’ (singular: ‘genus’). The English term for this is "voice"

gnomicus: from Greek gnwmikoj: as encountered in gnwmai (= proverbs)

grades of comparison: system of adjective forms designed to make comparison possible, comparable to English "big, bigger, biggest"

grammar: for understanding language (or a sentence) it is not sufficient to know all the words of a language (or that sentence). In addition one must know a set of rules governing the assigning of functions etc. To understand English "Man eats dog" correctly one must know that the first substantive (however surprisingly) normally gets the function of subject.

gravis: type of accent (q.v.) that indicates absence of stress by a lower, less energetic, tone  

gutturals: type of consonants (q.v.) produced by momentary complete or partial blocking of the breath flow at the back of the palate with the rear part of the tongue

imperative: type of verb form which conveys a command by the user to the receiver to perform the action (or allow himself to be subjected to it etc.)

indefinite: (of pronouns) not stating or implying fixed identity, e.g. Someone has stolen my cigarettes.

indicative, past: type of verb form (in Greek) by which the user conveys the information that the subject at some moment before the time of speaking actually performed the action (c.q. was subjected to it).
--, present: action performed (etc.) in the present

infinitive: type of verb form that introduces the performing of the action (along with genus (i.e. active, medium or passive) and phase (i.e. durative, aorist, future or perfect) as such into the sentence, e.g. He won't dare (to) come. Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner.

instrumental: type of verbal adjunct stating what (or who) was used to perform the action with, e.g. Drive in the nails with a hammer.

interrogative: (of pronouns) putting a question as to identity, manner, time etc. E.g. Who has stolen my cigarettes?

Ionic: dialect of ancient Greek used in some islands of the Aegean sea and along the middle part of the Anatolian west coast.

Irrealis: name for a condition that is not capable of fulfilment, e.g. "If I were God, the world would be a different place."

iterativus: entailing the notion of repeated action

labials: type of consonants produced by pressing the lips together, thus momentarily blocking or impeding the flow of breath

lenis: Greek script marks initial h and lack of h by two signs; the sign for lack of h is called spiritus lenis (see "Script")

lexicon: synonym of dictionary (q.v.)

linguistic: concerning language and the science of language

liquidae: defining these consonants is more laborious than fruitful; l,m,n and r are the liquidae

locative: case (but more frequently partial function of a case) that gives information on the place of action

marker: part of a form that places this form in a certain category of forms that share a certain special meaning, e.g. the marker –σα- immediately following the stem of a Greek verb form places it in the category aorists active or medial

masculine: class of substantives that demand a certain set of adjective agreeing forms; this class is called masculine because (as good as) all words denoting males (besides countless others) belong to it

medium: class of Greek (and possibly other) verb forms that have as shared meaning that the user conveys the information that the subject is also (direct or indirect) object of the same action, e.g. ‘He washes himself.’, which in Greek is expressed by one form conveying all the information

middle: synonym of medium (q.v.)

monosyllabic: consisting of one syllable only

mood: (definition for Greek only) the phases (q.v.) of the Greek verb have 5 sets of personal forms: present and past indicative, subjunctive, optative and imperative; the collective name for these is ‘the moods’. For want of a better qualification infinitive and participle are often also named ‘moods’.

morphology: rules concerning and science of (making) forms, i.e. physically different sound groups that share a common stem and are so considered to belong to one lexical item, or to a group of lexical items sharing the same stem

nasal: pronunciation with a good deal of nose in it. m,  n & ng are the nasal consonants. The oral flow of breath is blocked, but that through the nose is left open

negation: type of word whereby the user denies the sense of a statement; English examples: not, nobody

neuter: class of substantives that demand a certain set of adjective agreeing forms; this class is called neuter because words denoting females and males are (practically) excluded from it; see also ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’.

nominative: case that has as it’s main function that of presenting the subject of the sentence

non-canonical: not made according to a set of standard rules (see canon)

noun: word that represents a person, a thing etc. or a quality thereof

object, direct: function in the (active) sentence that gives who or what is subjected to the action

object, indirect: function in the sentence that gives who or what benefits by the action

obliquus: grammatically subordinate, grammatically engendered

occlusive: type of consonant (q.v.) that has as it’s special property that the flow of breath is momentarily completed blocked, such as p and t

optative mood (q.v.) whereby the user expresses the wish that the subject perform/be subjected to etc. the action; see also indicative, subjunctive and imperative

palatal: pronunciation of certain consonants in the region of the palate (roof of the mouth). K-sounds (gutturals) can be formed far back in the throat through to the front near the teeth. The palatal pronunciation is rather to the front than the back.

paradigm: synopsis of all the forms within a certain morphological system, following a conventional order of placement

participle: verb form made by attaching a participle-marker to a phase stem and so creating an adjective that gives the performing of (or having performed) the action (or, as the case may be, being subjected to / having been subjected to etc. the action) as property to the noun qualified by the adjective; English example ‘woven’=’that has been woven’: ‘Woven textiles are stronger than knitted ones.’

passive: type of verb form that conveys the information that the subject is being (will be, has been etc.) subjected to the action

perfect: phase (q.v.) of the Greek verb of which the forms convey the information that the subject is in the situation of having performed (having been subjected to, etc.) the action

periphrastical: manner of putting an action into words that entails the use of more than one word, usually a main word and auxiliary word(s), as against putting the same thing with one word, e.g. ‘I have sinned’ as against Latin ‘peccavi’; in Greek periphrastical conjugation is applied in A perfect subj & opt, in MdP perfect pr-&pa-ind 3rd pl and also subj & opt. The auxiliary verb is always εἰμι, even in the Active

phase: manner of presenting the action in the Greek (and probably other) verbal system; Greek has three of these: the action presented as ongoing (durative), purely and simply as fact (aorist) and as past, but having resulted in a situation (perfect); the future is not properly speaking a phase, but a tense.

plural: form(s) of a word whereby the information is imparted that more than one of the category named is involved; plural verb forms impart the information that the subject is a plurality; plurals of a congruent word impart the information that the adjective (or pronoun representing an adjective) agrees with a plurality

potentialis: type of verb form (or use of verb form) that conveys the information that the action is not actually performed, but only under certain possible conditions may be performed

predicate: part of sentence that states the action or situation of which an account is being given

predicative: pertaining to the predicate, or qualifying the predicate

prefix: part of a word that is attached preceding the actual stem (q.v.)

preposition: type of word that has practically no existence in sentences without an attending substantive (or substantive-representing noun), such as with, of

proclitic: for accentuation purposes forming one entity with the following word

prohibitive: type of verb form (or use of verb form) that together with a negation (q.v.) conveys the information that the action as far as the user of the form is concerned may not be performed

pronoun: type of word used to represent a substantive or adjective noun; English examples: this, such

recipient: in speech one postulates a speaker (or writer), i.e. user, of language and a party that hears or reads the language: the recipient or receiver

reduplication: the phenomenon of doubling part of a form to create a certain function of the form thus built; in Greek this is almost always initial

relative pronoun: type of pronoun used to join a clause stating something about a substantive to that substantive; English has no relative pronoun proper, but applies interrogative or demonstrative pronouns in this function

secondary: sentences (q.v.) may be made up of more than one clause of which some are felt to be main and others secondary

sentence: message conveyed by words having a certain preferred way of being built: subject, predicate and attending objects and adjuncts; a sentence of one word is not theoretically excluded, neither are more words not having the preferred structure (e.g. "Go", "Away with you.")

sibilant: consonant formed by pressing out the articulatory air flow between the  tongue and the part of the palate immediately behind the teeth

silent e: e that does not correspond to any audible sound, as in wine

singular: form(s) of a word whereby the information is imparted that one of the category named is involved; singular verb forms impart the information that the subject is no more than one; singular forms of a congruent word impart the information that the adjective (or pronoun representing an adjective) agrees with a singular substantive (or pronoun representing a substantive)

source:  from all the forms of words that have more than one form (in Greek substantives, adjectives, pronouns and verbs) one form is selected to do the lexical honours: the source form, from which all other forms are supposed to be derived; for substantives this is the nominative singular, for adjectives the form that agrees with the nominative singular of masculine substantives; for pronouns the nominative singular masculine or form agreeing with a nominative singular masculine; for verbs in Greek lexicons the 1^st person singular of the active durative present indicative; in case of absent active the MdP is named, also 1^st sg du pr-ind

spirit: Greek words with initial vowel (in modern script) carry on this vowel a sign of aspiration preceding the vowel or lack of this aspiration: the spirit; the aspiration is marked by what looks like an inverted comma, the lack of it by what looks like a normal comma, written over the letter

stem: especially of polymorphous words there is a common part in all the forms: the largest part that all the forms share is called the stem of that word; sometimes part of the stem is obscured by assimilations or contractions

subject: part of the sentence (q.v.) that expresses the person or matter that performs the action, (or, in passive is subjected to it) etc.

subjunctive: mood of the verb that conveys the information that the user desires the subject to perform the action (this is only a fundamental definition: there are other uses)

subordinating: subordinate parts of a sentence are mostly connected to the main part by words that exist specially for that purpose or have that purpose as one of their functions, such as because in ‘I won’t help you, because I hate your guts.’: the word because makes ‘ I hate your guts’ the reason for the main statement ‘I won’t help you’; these connecting words are called subordinating conjunctions

substantive: word denoting persons, things or matters

suffix: some parts of words are common to many and impart a common sort of meaning to the words they are part of, e.g. in English the word-ending –ing, which, added to a verbal stem (q.v.) makes a substantive (that has also come to occupy the place of present participle) denoting the performing of the action as such; such parts are named "suffix" when they constitute the last part of the word. In Greek, of course, among others the case-endings and personal endings of the verbs are suffixes

syllable: (more extended) words may be divided for the sake of treatment into bits that are grouped round the vowels (q.v.): every vowel or diphthong with preceding and/or following consonants (q.v.) constitutes a syllable; languages all have their own rules for the divisions

syntax: making statements in a certain language is not just a matter of stringing words together haphazardly; there are rules concerning the construction of separate words into sentences: the collectivity of these rules is named the ‘syntax’ of that language

temporal: giving or introducing information as to the moment of the action

tense: in Greek the du pr- & pa-ind, the ao ind, the fu ind and  the perfect pr- & pa-ind are the tenses: forms denoting somehow the time in which the action takes place.

thematic: in many Greek verb forms (and in many other kinds of form in a lot of languages) one may find a vowel (in Greek ε/ο) that contributes nothing to the meaning, but seems to be present only to form a connection between other parts that do contribute to the meaning: these are called ‘thematic’ vowels; in this grammar the thematic vowels have been fixed onto the following part or parts of the form and these endings have been given a separate place in the conspectus of verb forms

unit of conjugation, for Greek: a set of forms consisting of a present-indicative, a past-indicative, a subjunctive, an optative (all these with 3 persons sg and 3 pl), an imperative (2&3^rd sg and 2&3^rd pl), an infinitive, a participle (with a full set of agreeing forms); these forms all share phase and genus

unvoiced: property of consonants, meaning that the vocal chords are silent while they are being articulated (p, t, k, f etc.)

user: the speaker or writer of language

verb: word denoting an action or being in a state that counts among it’s forms some denoting person, tense, mood etc. (e.g. have, has, had, having)

vocative: case used by the user to address the (immediate) recipient by his name or other quality; often, but far from always, the nominative is used

voice: type of verb forms that express one of three relationships between subject and action: active (subject performs action), passive (subject is subjected to the action) and middle or medium (subject is also direct or indirect object); another word for this is genus

voiced: a property of consonants, meaning that the vocal chords are heard as the consonant is being articulated (b, d, g)

vowel: sound produced by the speech organs without any partial or complete blockage of the flow of breath, such as a, e

zero: absence of suffix (for case or personal ending), or other constituent part of a form