hAPAX LEGOMENA (was hopoxlogomina)
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Jul 29 20:17:45 EDT 1999
At 5:32 PM -0400 7/29/99, Nathan Montgomery wrote:
>I would like to find the meaning of this Koine Greek language principle.
>Any help is welcomed.
The phrase in question is hAPAX LEGOMENON, wherein LEGOMENON is a present
passive participle used as a substantive and hAPAX is an adverb meaning
"once" or "only once"--hence, a word or expression only one instance of
which is to be found in a particular text (as, for example, "hARPAGMON in
Phil. 2 is a hapax legomenon in the Greek NT, although there are other
instances of it in Hellenistic papyrus texts." So: this is a technical term
for a word or phrase that is unique in a particular corpus of literature.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
Summer: 1647 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/
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