Apodoses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The part of a conditional sentence that expresses the consequence or result following the condition; the clause that states what will happen if the earlier condition is met; the syntactic element that completes a hypothetical or conditional phrase by indicating the outcome
2. The segment of a sentence conveying the effect or result dependent on a condition; the dependent clause announcing what occurs once the stipulation is fulfilled; the grammatical unit following a condition to reveal its conclusion
3. The component within conditional constructions that presents the consequent event or result; the phrase that specifies the outcome based on a preceding premise; the part succeeding the protasis to express what ensues from the condition

Etymology: The Greek word "apódosis" literally meant "giving back" or "a paying back," built from "apó" ("back, away") and "didónai" ("to give"). Its grammatical sense grew out of that idea of return: in a conditional sentence, the clause that answers the "if" part is the thing given back in response to the condition. Ancient Greek grammarians used it in exactly this way, so the term was already a technical label for the second half of a conditional before Rome ever borrowed it. Latin took the word over as "apodosis" in its own grammatical writings, and English later borrowed it again through that learned Latin channel. The result is a word that looks like a plain modern coinage but carries a classical sense of repayment, with the logic of a conditional sentence embedded in its shape.