Module 6 vocabulary

In module 6, we especially emphasize common vocabulary that has applications to legal contents.

Legal accusations

Bring a suit

Noun:

• γραφή, γραφῆς, ἡ, generically, “drawing, painting, or anything represented by lines”. In a lawsuit, γραφή is a “formal accusation”, or “bill of indictment in a public prosecution”

Verbs:

• γράφω, γράψω, ἔγραψα, γέγραφα, γέγραμμαι, ἐγράφθην : “to draw, write”. In a legal context, the middle voice γράφομαι means “indict” someone. The person is a direct object in the accusative: “to indict someone”; you can even include γραφὴν or δίκας (see below) as a second direct object, “bring an indictment against someone”. The charge can be given with a genitive object, e.g., γράφομαι φόνου, “charge someone with murder.” The people bringing the suit (in the court, the prosecutors) can be referred to οἱ γραψάμενοι.

The trial

Nouns:

• δίκη, δίηκς, ἡ: In the abstract, “right, justice”; concretely in a legal context, “a judgment, a lawsuit, or legal proceeding.” With λαμβάνω: λαμβάνω δίκην “take punishment, vengeance; impose or exact a penalty, punish” (with παρά + genitive to express “from a person”).
• δικάζω (regular): “to judge”. Can be used with direct object δίκην, “give a judgment on a legal case.”
• δικαστής, οῦ, ὁ: Etynmologically, a person who does the verb δικάζω; “juror.”

Other vocabulary

Nouns:

• ζημία, ζημίας, ἡ “penalty”; use a genitive noun to express what the penalty is four. With ἐπιτίθημι (see below), “impose a penalty (on someone: include a person in the dative)”
• πόλις, πόλεως, ἡ “city state”; also “the community, citizen body of a city.”
• τιμωρία, τιμωρίας, ἡ “vengeance”; λαμβάνω τιμωρίας, “take vengeance”
• χρῆμα, χρήματος, τό, “a thing” that someone needs; plural, “goods, property, moneys”

An adjective:

• ἴδιος, ἰδία, ἴδιον: “private, personal” (as opposed to “public, civic”). (Possible opposites include δημόσιος, δημοσία, δημόσιον “beloning to the people, or the state,” and κοινός, κοινή, κοινόν, “common, shared.”)

Verbs:

• κεῖμαι, κείσομαι, -, -, -, - “to lie down, be laid down”. Functions as the passive for past tenses of τίθημι (some that has previously been “placed” now “lies in place”).
• τίθημι, θήσω, ἔθηκα, τέθηκα, τέθειμαι, ἐτέθην: “set, put, place”. Frequent in compounds with more specific senses, e.g., ἐπιτίθημι “place on, impose;” in a legal context, ἐπιτίθημι δίκην or ζημίαν “impose a penalty.”