Page:Vocabulary of Menander (1913).djvu/28

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24
THE VOCABULARY OF MENANDER

crepancies in accent and gender, but we may simply mention μωρός for μῶρος and τρόπαιον for τροπαῖον of which grammarians do not approve. They occur, however, in the modern editions of the orators.

Variations in gender from ordinary usage are:

ἡ λιβανωτός

ἡ Πάνακτος

μέθυσος of a man; cf. ch. I.


Compounds with -privative.

H. A. Hamilton[1] has shown that the use of these words increased as time went on. There is a fair number of them in Menander which do not occur in the classical writers, but few which were not used before his day. The former group comprises 14; viz. ἀβέβαιος, ἀδιάφθορος (of a virgin), ἀκρατεύομαι, ἀλυπία (Plato), ἀμέριμνος = carefree, ἀνάριστος, ἀνέπαφος, ἀπαρηγόρητος, ἀσθενικός, ἀστοργία, ἀσυλλὀγιστος, ἀσχολέομαι, ἀτυφία, ἀχόρταστος. Of these only ἀδιάφθορος in this sense, ἀμέριμνος in this sense, ἀνέπαφος (used by [Dem.]), ἀστοργία, ἀτυφία and ἀχόρταστος first appear in Menander, and the adjective ἄστοργος occurs in Aeschines. As compared with 20 new negative compounds in Demosthenes,[2] this number does not show that Menander had a tendency to this form of expression, but rather the contrary. Here he agrees with middle and new comedy in general, which shows 19 new negative compounds, in contrast to Aristophanes and the old comedy, which furnish 92 new examples.


Compounds with δυσ-.

New compounds with δυσ- are δυσδιάθετος, δυσνουθέτητος, δυσπαρακολούθητος, δύσφευκτος. None of these is censured by the grammarians, yet δύσριγος elicits blame from Phrynichus and Pollux, though it is found in a fragment of Aristophanes. This compound seems less regular in formation than the others. They are all rare words, as appears from the list in chapter III.


-ώδης.

The suffix -ώδης is not common in good writers. We find in Menander three words formed with it which do not occur in classical writers with the exception of Plato: viz. Ἀλεξαν-

  1. H. A. Hamilton, The negative compounds in Greek, diss. Baltimore, 1899, pp. 58 ff.
  2. These and the following figures are taken from Hamilton, l. c.