μάταιον (mataion)

μάταιον is an Ancient Greek form of μάταιος, meaning “vain, idle”. It is the nominative singular neuter adjective.

Found 52 times in the Ancient Greek texts on Socratos.

Where it is used

Diogenes Laertius, Vitae philosophorum 5.2.40: … ός, βιοὺς ἔτη πέντε καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα, ἐπειδήπερ ὀλίγον ἀνῆκε τῶν πόνων. καὶ ἔστιν ἡμῶν εἰς αὐτόν· οὐκ ἄρα τοῦτο μάταιον ἔπος μερόπων τινὶ λέχθη, ῥήγνυσθαι σοφίης τόξον ἀνιέμενον· δὴ γὰρ καὶ Θεόφραστος ἕως ἐπόνει μὲν ἄπηρος ἦν δέμ …

Demosthenes, Second Olynthiac 12: … ουσιν ἐξεληλυθότων ὑμῶν ἀξίως τῆς πόλεως καὶ ὄντων ἐπὶ τοῖς πράγμασιν, ὡς ἅπας μὲν λόγος, ἂν ἀπῇ τὰ πράγματα, μάταιόν τι φαίνεται καὶ κενόν, μάλιστα δʼ ὁ παρὰ τῆς ἡμετέρας πόλεως· ὅσῳ γὰρ ἑτοιμότατʼ αὐτῷ δοκοῦμεν χρῆσθαι, τοσού …

Basil, Saint, Bishop of Caesarea, Epistulae 331: Μάταιόν ἐστι δὶς περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιστέλλειν. ἢ γὰρ φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει διορθώσεως τὸ πρᾶγμα, καὶ μάτην ἡμῖν ἐνοχλοῦσιν οἱ …

All forms of μάταιος (declension table)

Source: Socratos (socratos.org), a free reader for Ancient Greek and Latin. Grammar from the Perseus Treebank and Morpheus; dictionary entries from Liddell-Scott-Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA). Counts are from the texts on Socratos.