Greek Lexicography

Some scholars and most modern translations assign passive voice to the verbal phrase ἐκ μέσου γένηται in 2 Thess 2:7, so that the katechōn will be “taken out of the way” or “removed”. Other scholars translate it as a middle, meaning “be out of the way”, “leaving the scene”, “disappearing”. A new argument is proposed in support of the second interpretation, which starts from the study of the meaning of ἐκ μέσου γίγνομαι in the entries of some Byzantine lexica, and a reconstruction of the semantic development of the phrase in the first centuries AD is suggested.

Diversi esegeti e la maggioranza delle traduzioni in lingue moderne assegnano valore passivo al sintagma verbale ἐκ μέσου γένηται in 2Ts 2,7, per cui il katechōn sarà “tolto di mezzo” o “rimosso”. Altri commentatori traducono il sintagma nel significato mediale di “ritirarsi”, “uscire di scena”, “sparire”. Si propongono una nuova argomentazione a favore di questa seconda interpretazione, che prende l’avvio dallo studio del significato di ἐκ μέσου γίγνομαι nelle voci di alcuni lessici bizantini, e una ricostruzione dello sviluppo semantico del sintagma nei primi secoli d.C.

Abstract:  Pollux uses the technical term  ‘amphibolon’  in different contexts and with relatively different functions. This paper documents in detail these functions, categorizes them in 5 different categories (marking of polysemous lexemes; marking of polysemous lexemes in specific passages; highlighting dubious readings in specific passages; marking of a doubtful categorization of a thing; marking lexemes which are dubious regarding their canonicity) and discusses their relation with lexicographic features and intentions of the  Onomasticon. It contributes contributes, thus, to the disambiguation of the term in the  Onomasticon  and adds some insights about its uses in the ancient Greek grammatical and lexicogrpahical tradition.

The Lack of written representation for Italian Sign Language (LIS) makes it difficult to do perform tasks like looking up a new word in a dictionary. Most of the paper dictionaries show LIS signs in drawings or pictures. It's not a simple proposition to understand the meaning of sign from paper dictionaries unless one already knows the meanings. This paper presents the LIS dictionary which provides the facility to translate Italian text into sign language. LIS signs are shown as video animations performed by a virtual character. The LIS dictionary provides the integration with MultiWordNet database. The integration with MultiWordNet allows a rich extension with the meanings and senses of the words existing in MultiWordNet. The dictionary allows users to acquire information about lemmas, synonyms and synsets in the Sign Language (SL). The application is platform independent and can be used on any operating system. The results of input lemmas are displayed in groups of grammatical categories.

Liddell and Scott has long been regarded as one of the most valuable pieces of Ancient Greek lexicography. Following its creation in the mid-19th century, this renowned lexicon by two young Oxford postgraduates has undergone a myriad of revisions and incorporated multiple addenda along the way. As recently as 2019, Christopher Stray, Michael Clarke, and Joshua T. Katz edited the compilation of twenty-one articles which I have been commissioned to review here. These articles are, in turn, grouped around the following parts or overarching themes: (1) History and Constitution of the Lexicon; (2) Periods and Genres of Evidence; (3) Methodology and Problems; and (4) Comparisons in Time and Space. Throughout the compilation, contributors pay their particular homage to Liddell and Scott by primarily focusing on the path travelled up to its ninth edition (henceforth referred to as LSJ). Heterogenous, yet inclusive insights are adopted which highlight Liddell and Scott’s strengths and shortcomings alike, with the latter having mostly to do with updates perceived as necessary in the twenty-first century. It might well be this willingness of the Lexicon to embrace change that underlies its long-lived success.

Lexica of ancient languages have oftentimes been wrongfully regarded as static quasi-archaeological remnants, based on their tendency to depict a fossilized, no-longer-in-use model of language. However, since the baseline goal of a dictionary is that of making the language that pertains to a particular historical context accessible to a reader, both types of ancient- or modern-language lexica demonstrate a legitimate need for ongoing revisions and constant updates. Even though the corpus of entries in Liddell and Scott has remained largely unaltered through the years, a refinement in the teaching methodologies and a deeper understanding of Ancient Greece have both come a long way since the conception of the Lexicon. This shift in focus correlates with a strong willingness to explore the Greek Antiquity through language and the usage thereof in a variety of literary works, which certainly requires taking on a multidimensional approach.

Until recently, the study of Greek would adopt a merely stative stance. Students and scholars alike were expected to acquire the ‘fossilised’ fundamentals of language history and grammatical structure. It is within this context that the lexica became essential tools in verifying (even ‘deciphering’) the meaning of units largely unknown to the community of students and researchers. This process was basically conducted in a mechanical manner, from a lack of criticism or further interest therein. Among the multiple shifts undergone by society since the mid-1800s, gradual emphasis has arisen on complexity, diversity, and (relatedly) critical thinking. As I will review in the following section, this 2019 volume by Stray et al. (eds) vividly demonstrates the fate of this shift in mentality. Its articles, as a whole, embrace a broad spectrum of scholarly concerns, both methodological and societal.

The linguistic and cultural contacts between Judea and Greece began during the Biblical period. These contacts intensified during the Hellenistic kingdoms and the Roman and Byzantine empires. The Greek language became the common language of the Hellenistic Orient and many Greek words were adopted by the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. This rich vocabulary of Greek words written in Hebrew characters is called ‘Rabbinical Greek. A new Greek dialect, also written in Hebrew characters, flourished in the Jewish communities in Greece and the Mediterranean coast and it is called Judeo-Greek. Into this dialect, the Hebrew Bible was translated and liturgy texts were written. This article is devoted to the study of the vocabulary of both dialects and the relations between, well documented in late rabbinical literature and Judeo-Greek biblical translations.

Peer-review. Articoli e note inviati per la pubblicazione alla rivista sono sottoposti -nella forma del doppio anonimato -a peer-review di due esperti, di cui uno almeno esterno al Comitato Scientifico o alla Direzione. Nel secondo fascicolo delle annate pari è pubblicato l'elenco dei revisori.

The etymology of σμάραγδος is traditionally related to the Semitic root *brq, ʻto shineʼ. However, this article sets out the idea that this etymology comes from a Semitic word related to the root *wrq, ʻto be greenʼ, which is, in turn, related to myc. pa-ra-ku-we and its derivatives. This new etymology is based on the analysis of the syllabogram *56, which may probably have a value as /ba/ or /mba/ in Linear A as well as in Linear B. The Mycenaean scribes note the syllabogram *56 also with the graphic variants pa and ma. This fluctuation also appears in the alphabetic Greek bases *μαρακ- and *βαρακ- which are related to colour green realities.

Tengo que advertir, en primer lugar, que existen sin duda estudiosos mucho más competentes que yo en estas materias, y en consecuencia abordar este tema puede ser osadía por mi parte 1 . En realidad planteo estas pocas páginas casi como una reflexión en voz alta, a modo de consideraciones teóricas que espero no resulten inoportunas, dado que realmente no son la base teórica de ningún proyecto concreto de próxima realización. Trataré simplemente de animar con estas reflexiones la discusión sobre una técnica de trabajo que puede -y quizá debe-modificar el concepto que tenemos de lexicografía. Lo cierto es que el concepto y uso del diccionario está en progresivo cambio 2 y que en nuestro país se suscita cada vez con más interés este problema, como muestra la aparición del artículo «Informática y lexicografía: la experiencia del Diccionario Griego-Español» 3 .

Originally, Ancient Greek employed the letter digamma (ϝ) to represent the /w/ sound. Over time, this sound disappeared, alongside the digamma that denoted it. However, to transcribe those archaic, dialectal, or foreign words that still retained this sound, lexicographers employed other letters, whose sound was close enough to /w/. Among these, there is the letter gamma (γ), attested mostly but not only in the Lexicon of Hesychius. Given what we know about the sound of gamma, it is difficult to explain this use. The most straightforward hypothesis suggests that the scribes who copied these words misread the capital digamma (Ϝ) as gamma (Γ). Presenting new and old evidence of gamma used to denote digamma in Ancient Greek literary and documentary papyri, lexicography, and medieval manuscripts, this paper refutes this hypothesis , and demonstrates that a peculiar evolution in the pronunciation of gamma in Post-Classical Greek triggered a systematic use of this letter to denote the sound once represented by the digamma.

The normative tradition in Greek lexicography is remarkably long-lived. As early as the Second Sophistic (I–III CE), Atticist grammarians and lexicographers sought to recapture the quality of classical Attic Greek by composing usage manuals that prescribed correct usages and proscribed incorrect ones (i.e. Koiné and vernacularisms). This prescriptive tradition ushered in the long-lived diglossic situation that subsequently contributed to the enregisterment of (high) puristic variants, which survived in various forms until the twentieth century. Following the official end in 1976 of the last of these, katharevousa, Greek lexicography has continued to struggle with the residual influence of prescriptive thinking, which is but one symptom of Modern Greek’s continuing struggle to completely free itself of its classical shackles. However, despite the fact that negative usage labelling, such as esfalménos (incorrect), and even references to Atticists like Phrynichus, can be found in some of today’s widely-used dictionaries of Modern Greek, there is evidence that the art of lexicography has taken a decisively descriptive turn in the last few decades.

This paper will be presented in the annual conference of the Society for Classical Studies on January 7, 2021. A fuller treatment is forthcoming. The abstract can also be found on the SCS website, linked below.

https://classicalstudies.org/annual-meeting/152/abstract/nietzsches-philology-ephexis-interpretation

Cet article s’intéresse à l’emploi des formes de gradation signifiant « (le) meilleur », « (le) pire » (ἀμείνων, ἀρείων, etc.) chez Apollonios de Rhodes. Leurs emplois se situent entre tradition et innovation : le modèle principal est le modèle homérique, fortement détourné néanmoins par une propension à recourir principalement, voire exclusivement, à celles des formes homériques qui n’ont pas ou quasiment pas survécu en prose classique et hellénistique (développement très net de ἀρείων au détriment de ἀμείνων, élimination de χείρων en faveur de χερείων, disparition de κρείσσων et de ἥσσων, etc.). Cette tendance à rechercher ce qui, dans la langue homérique, diffère de la prose classique et hellénistique, aboutit quelquefois à des résultats paradoxaux : par exemple, les deux seules occurrences de ἀμείνων chez Apollonios, tout en étant clairement inspirées par l’influence homérique, sont, d’un autre point de vue, plus proches des emplois homériques de ἀρείων que de ceux de ἀμείνων. On notera par ailleurs la remarquable promotion connue par les formes de gradation κύντερος et κύντατος dans la langue d’Apollonios : largement désémantisées par rapport au modèle homérique, celles-ci ne semblent plus toujours très éloignées d’y fonctionner quasiment comme des formes de gradation supplétives de κακός. Cet article tient également compte d’autres influences sur la langue d’Apollonios de Rhodes que le modèle homérique, qui permettent plusieurs fois de mieux comprendre certaines divergences par rapport à la langue de l’épopée ancienne.

This article deals with a hitherto unknown excerptum of the Lexicon Vindobonensis. The excerptum is transmitted in the 15th-century ms. Bodl. Barocci 216 and preserves only the first eleven lemmata of the Lexicon. It reflects the original redaction (α) of this work, which is fully transmitted only in ms. Neap. II D 29. In the light of the new evidence offered by the excerptum Baroccianum, we can gauge better the humanist spreading of the Lexicon, and the hypothesis that the α redaction may be a product of the copyist of the Neapolitan manuscript (already dismissed by A. Guida) can be conclusively rejected.

https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/prometheus/article/view/9240/8192

For the adjective ποικίλος modern dictionaries and translators propose numerous meanings. However, a thorough analysis of the Greek inscriptions allows questioning the polysemic nature of the adjective. It can be discarded that ποικίλος refers to the manufacturing technique of an object, while the meaning of chromatic discontinuity or diversity is always possible.

Starting from the recent studies of Eleanor Dickey and Rolando Ferri, the following passages of the so-called Hermeneumata Celtis are discussed here: colloquium: 37b-d, 51b; glossary: 12.118, 12.166 (12.859), 12.603, 12.1201, 12.1306, 15.6, 18.258, 27.64, 30.39, 33bis.54, 41.232.

Scopo di questo intervento è esplorare le modalità di trasmissione indiretta dei testi classici in Rete, con particolare riguardo alle raccolte online di citazioni.
Nella prima parte della relazione si esamineranno le possibilità di applicazione a queste raccolte – prima tra tutte Wikiquote – dei metodi di analisi sviluppati in filologia classica per lo studio dei lessici antichi e medievali (soprattutto in ambito greco). In primo luogo si passeranno in rassegna alcuni aspetti comuni ai lessici antichi e digitali: il (frequente) anonimato dell’autore, l’apertura a continue aggiunte da parte dei lettori nel tempo, i tagli arbitrari e le imprecisioni o i riadattamenti nel dettato delle citazioni, le false attribuzioni. Si mostrerà poi come tramite gli strumenti Cronologia e Wikiblame sia possibile un’analisi diacronica della progressiva costituzione di una voce Wikiquote (e Wikipedia).
Nella seconda parte dell’intervento si discuteranno degli esempi del ruolo svolto dai lessici digitali nella tradizione indiretta dei classici latini e greci, non solo in Rete, ma anche a stampa, vale a dire quando brani letterari escerpiti in Wikiquote e altre raccolte a partire da una copia stampata del testo integrale (ovvero dalla tradizione orale) vengono riutilizzati in nuove pubblicazioni a stampa. Particolare attenzione sarà dedicata ai casi in cui il riuso di una citazione rivela un fraintendimento o una forzatura del senso del contesto d’origine del passo.

In this paper I will focus on a crux in two Platonic scholia, where manuscripts have the impossible διονύσιον, but Greene suggests δίκαιον. This amendment was made on the basis of a gloss of Photius’ Lexicon, although the corresponding gloss of Suidas confirms the text of Platonic scholia. However the agreement with Photius is not so important, not only because it is impossible to prove that he reproduces the text of the glossary composed by the Atticist Aelius Dionysius without any modification (it is also the source of Suidas and other Byzantine lexica, and especially of the so called Erweiterte Synagoge, which the Platonic scholia derive from as well), but also because our scholia reveal elsewhere a major affinity with Suidas than with Patriarch’s Lexicon. In the light of a careful review of the loci paralleli I therefore suggest the reading δημόσιον.

The gloss μακαρία (Hesych. μ 103 L.) is often assumed to attest a root *mak- also found in the verb μάσσω, ‘to knead’. Another, fuller gloss in Harpocration (ν 8 K.), although neglected by recent scholarship, helps in clarifying that this word is actually a derivative of μάκαρ, ‘blessed’, referring to some kind of ritual bread or cake. A similar meaning is indeed still preserved in Modern Greek.

In the first part of the article the principal characteristics of the papyrus lexica are fully examined. The second part offers an analysis of the gloss l´kissai in P.Oxy. XV 1802 + LXXI 4812, in order to illustrate some of the main problems connected with the exegesis of the lexicographic texts. Finally a detailed list of the papyrus lexica is provided.

There are two medieval Latin translations of the Hippocratic treatise Περί αέρων... (Vth and Xllth centuries). This paper makes a comparative semantic study of the medical technical terminology in both translations. Through a se mantic classification of significant words and expressions used in each transla ción, the author concludes that the Xllth century one is independent of the other and addressed to a lay and larger public.

Questo saggio prende ispirazione da un lavoro di Renzo Tosi sulla tradizione indiretta dell'Edipo a Colono sofocleo 1 , in cui l'Autore, concentrandosi in particolare sull'apporto dei lessici di Esichio e della Suda, dimostra che Esichio conserva lacerti di un commentario antico -probabilmente quello di Didimo -che talvolta sono comuni agli scholia vetera e talaltra indipendenti 2 , mentre la Suda, disponendo tra le sue fonti di un manoscritto sofocleo scoliato e di una redazione del lessico della Sunagwghv che tramandavano spesso gli stessi materiali, preferiva di regola il primo alla seconda.