Suda On Line
Search
|
Search results for alpha,5 in Adler number:
Headword:
Ἄαπτος
Adler number: alpha,5
Translated headword: irresistable, invulnerable
Vetting Status: high
Translation: Unharmed.
Herodianus[1] says about
ἄαπτος that it comes from
ἰάπτω ['I harm'], and after adding alpha-privative and dropping the 'i' [it becomes]
ἄαπτος , "whom no one can harm." Or perhaps the 'a' is not to be taken as negative but as intensifying, so it would be "one who has great power to harm." Thus the first has a passive sense, the second an active. With the negative prefix it also means "one who is untouched."[2]
Ἄαπτος: ἀβλαβής. Ἡρωδιανός φησι περὶ τοῦ ἄαπτος, ὅτι γίγνεται ἀπὸ τοῦ ἰάπτω τὸ βλάπτω, καὶ μετὰ τοῦ στερητικοῦ α καὶ κατ' ἔλλειψιν τοῦ ι ἄαπτος, ὃν οὐδεὶς δύναται βλάψαι. ἢ οὐχὶ κατὰ στέρησιν ἐκληπτέον τὸ α, ἀλλὰ κατ' ἐπίτασιν, ἵν' ᾖ ὁ μεγάλα δυνάμενος βλάπτειν. ὥστε τὸ μὲν πρῶτον δηλοῖ πάθος, τὸ δὲ δεύτερον ἐνέργειαν. λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἄαπτος κατὰ στέρησιν ὁ ἄψαυστος.
Notes:
This form of the headword, the nominative singular masculine/feminine, is unattested outside lexicography; however, plural forms occur frequently in hexameter poetry, in the formula
χεῖρες ἄαπτοι or
χεῖρας ἀάπτους (usually interpreted as 'irresistable hands'); e.g.
Homer,
Iliad 8.450 (web address 1).
[1] The etymological comments that follow occur only in mss G (= Parisinus 2623) and T (= Vaticanus 881); cf.
Herodianus 3.2.30.
[2] This etymology, alpha-privative +
ἅπτομαι ('touch'), is the one most commonly accepted nowadays. See LSJ s.v. (web address 2) and Scwyzer,
DGE. Yet there is reason for doubt, and the correct Homeric form (attested already by
Aristophanes of
Byzantium) may actually be
ἀεπτ- . See Chantraine s.v.
ἄαπτος .
Web address 1
Web address 2
Keywords: definition; dialects, grammar, and etymology; epic; poetry
Translated by: Anne Mahoney on 21 August 1998@16:48:12.
Vetted by:
No. of records found: 1
Page 1
End of search