ἐπιστομίζειν to gag, silence a speaker

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Stephen Hughes
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Joined: February 26th, 2013, 7:12 am

ἐπιστομίζειν to gag, silence a speaker

Post by Stephen Hughes »

This is question about derivational morphology.

Is there a good reason why πιστομίζειν (used with an accusative of person) "to gag someone", "to silence a speaker", isn't πιστοματίζειν* ?

It is used once in the New Testament.
Titus 1:11 wrote:οὓς δεῖ ἐπιστομίζειν· οἵτινες ὅλους οἴκους ἀνατρέπουσιν, διδάσκοντες ἃ μὴ δεῖ, αἰσχροῦ κέρδους χάριν.
Γελᾷ δ' ὁ μωρός, κἄν τι μὴ γέλοιον ᾖ
(Menander, Γνῶμαι μονόστιχοι 108)
Stephen Carlson
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Joined: May 11th, 2011, 10:51 am
Location: Melbourne
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Re: ἐπιστομίζειν to gag, silence a speaker

Post by Stephen Carlson »

It is ἐπιστομίζειν; the initial epsilon is not an augment. I'd say that the verb is derived, not from the noun στόμα, but from the prepositional phrase ἐπὶ στόμα. Though LSJ does list a related from ἐπιστοματίζειν, so someone in antiquity had your instincts.
Stephen C. Carlson, Ph.D.
Melbourne, Australia
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