Page:The Suffix -μα in Aristophanes.djvu/4

ous force,^[1] and the neuter gender contributes something to the depreciatory tone. Examples follow:

τρῖμμα Nub. 260 for τρίβων (Nub. 869) or τριπτός as in ἐπίτριπτος (Ach. 557, Pac. 1236, Pl. 275, 619, Soph. Aj. 103, Andoc. 1, 99). See the scholiast, and Dieterich in Rhein. Mus. 48, 278 f.

περίτριμμα Nub. 447 (= περίτριπτος). Cf. Bekk. Anecd. 59, 32. Like περίτριμμα δικῶν here is περίτριμμα ἀγορᾶς in Dem. 18, 127.

σόφισμα,^[2] κύρμα, τρῖμμα, παιπάλημα^[3] Av. 431. The comic force of these words arising from metonymy and homoeoteleuton is cumulative.

στώμυλμα Ran. 92 (= στωμύλος), quoted in Dion. H., Ars Rhet. 10, 18. Cf. λάλημα Soph. Ant. 320.

κάθαρμα Pl. 454, Eupol. 117, fr. ap. Suid. s. v., "scum of the earth" (Rogers).^[4]

πατάγημα Menand. fr. 913 (= λάλος καὶ πανοῦργος, Phot., Suid.). Cf. παταγητικός.

βρόντημα adesp. 965 (= ὁ ἐμβρόντητος,^[5] Hesych.).

In a comic context Aristophanes uses the unusual form δέημα Ach. 1059 'beseechment', 'requestment', in place of the familiar word δέησις 'request' by a shift of termination from -σις to -μα, plainly for the comic effect. δέημα is quoted from this passage by the scholiast h. l. and by Suidas s. v., and is found elsewhere only in schol.^[6] Aesch. Eum. 92, and in Hesych. s. v.

Aeschylus had a great fondness for derivatives in -μα from verbs in -όω,^[7] perhaps because besides having greater length

1. Cf. Bremi on Dem. 18, 127.
2. Cf. ταῦτ᾽ εἶπε τὸ Θετταλὸν σόφισμα, ἤτοι ὁ ἐκ Θετταλίας σοφιστής. παίζει δ᾽ ἴσως πρὸς τὴν παροιμίαν ὁ Ἀθήναιος, Ath. 11b, and ὦ Θετταλὸν πάλαισμα Μυρτίλε, 308b. Cf. Eustath. 331, 35–40.
3. Cf. Aeschin 2, 40, Luc. Pseudolog. c. 32, Aeschrio ap. Ath. 335d, and ἄλημα in Soph. Aj. 381, 389.
4. Cf. Luc. Dial. Mort. 2, 1, Jup. Trag. 52, Dem. 18, 128; 21, 185, 198.
5. This meaning of βρόντημα is omitted in Liddell and Scott. For ἐμβρόντητος see Ar. Eccl. 793, Antiphan. 233, Philem. 44, Plat. Alc. 2 140c, Dem. 18, 243.
6. Perhaps the desire for homoeoteleuton—σέβισμα καὶ δέημα—caused the use of the form here.
7. Cf. ὅρκωμα (= ὅρκος) Eum. 486, 768, δόλωμα (= δόλος) Cho. 1003, σκύφωμα (= σκύφος) fr. 184, κάρπωμα (= καρπός) Suppl. 1001, δέσμωμα (= δεσμός) Pers. 745, κ. τ. λ. In some cases no verb in -όω has survived, cf. χαίτωμα (= χαίτη) Sept. 385, πλεύρωμα (= πλευρά, πλευρόν) Sept. 890, Cho. 682, κ. τ. λ.