ὀκν-έω,
Epic dialect ὀκνείω [[ 8th c.BC: Ilias Homerus Epicus “Illiad” 5.255 ] Refs 8th c.BC+]: imperfect ὤκνεον [[ 20.155 ] Refs]: future -ήσω[[ 5th-6th c.BC: Isocrates Orator 6.72 ] Refs 5th c.BC+]: aorist ὤκνησα [[ 4th c.BC: Demosthenes Orator 18.103, etc.] Refs 4th c.BC+]: (ὄκνος):—shrink from doing, scruple, hesitate to do a thing, with infinitive, ὀκνείω ἵππων ἐπιβαινέμεν [[ 8th c.BC: Ilias Homerus Epicus “Illiad” 5.255; ἀρχέμεναι πολέμοιο ὤκνεον 20.155.] Refs 8th c.BC+] —In _Attic dialect_ mostly with collateral sense of the feeling which causes the hesitation, and so,
__1 of shame or fear (in a moral sense), ὀκνῶ προδότης καλεῖσθαι I shrink from being called, fear to be called, [[ 5th c.BC: Sophocles Tragicus “Philoctetes” 93, compare 5th c.BC: Thucydides Historicus 5.61, 5th c.BC: Lysias Orator “Fragmenta” 23 ] Refs 5th c.BC+]; οἷα ἐγὼ ὀκνῶ πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὀνομάσαι shrink from naming, hesitate to name, [[ 4th c.BC: Demosthenes Orator 2.19, compare 5th-6th c.BC: Plato Philosophus “Gorgias” 462e; τοσαῦθ᾽ ὅσ᾽ ὀκνήσαιμ᾽ ἂν.. εἰπεῖν 4th c.BC: Demosthenes Orator 18.103, compare 24.7, etc. ] Refs 5th c.BC+]
__2 of pity, σὰς ὀκνῶ θρᾶξαι φρένας [[ 4th-5th c.BC: Aeschylus Tragicus “Prometheus Vinctus” 628, compare 5th c.BC: Sophocles Tragicus “Electra” 1271. ] Refs 5th c.BC+]
__3 most commonly of cowardice or indolence, μεμηνότ᾽ ἄνδρα.. ὀκνεῖς ἰδεῖν [[ [prev. author] “Aj.” 81, compare 5th c.BC: Thucydides Historicus 1.120, etc.] Refs 5th c.BC+] —The Homeric _construction_ with infinitive continued most common (see. above): rarely with accusative, πῶς τὸ μητρὸς λέκτρον οὐκ ὀκνεῖν με δε; [[ 5th c.BC: Sophocles Tragicus “Oedipus Tyrannus” 976; ὃν μήτ᾽ ὀκνεῖτε [prev. author] “OC” 731, compare 5th-6th c.BC: Xenophon Historicus “Institutio Cyri (Cyropaedia)” 2.2.21; ἂν ὀκνῇς τὸ μανθάνειν 4th-3rd c.BC: Philemo Comicus 213.1; also ὀ. περί τινος 5th-6th c.BC: Xenophon Historicus “Institutio Cyri (Cyropaedia)” 4.5.20; ὀ. μή.. 5th-6th c.BC: Plato Philosophus “Phaedrus” 257c, 5th-6th c.BC: Xenophon Historicus “Anabasis” 2.3.9, 4th c.BC: Demosthenes Orator 1.18. ] Refs 5th c.BC+]