Vocabulary of Menander (1913)/Chapter II

by Donald Blythe Durham

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CHAPTER II

Menander's use of certain types of words, supposedly Characteristic of the Koine, tested by their use in other writers

In addition to the words to which the grammarians definitely take exception, and to those of which they approve, we naturally find in Menander a good many other words which do not appear in the extant works of good writers of the classical period. Some of these words are doubtless missing in the approved writers merely by accident, because, for example, those authors did not happen to have occasion to use them in the books which have come down to us. A writer's vocabulary is of course governed very largely by the subject of which he treats. An example of this, if one be needed, may be found in the excessive proportion of adjectives having the termination -ικός in those plays of Aristophanes which satirize the philosophers,^[1] as compared with the plays which deal with other topics. Hence many words which were in good use in the best period of Greek do not happen to appear in the pages of the approved authors.

It is often difficult to decide where to draw the line in such cases. Instances which seem certain to one judge may appear doubtful in the eyes of another. The decision must be in part subjective. Among the examples of these words are ἀνδρεϊστέος, ἀριστόδειπνον, ἀρτικροτέομαι, ἀσκοπυτίνη and ἀττικουργής.

Other words of Menander which are missing in classical writers are strange compounds like ἀντλιαντλητήρ, which were probably used nowhere else; mere coined words, for comic effect, of which there are many instances in Aristophanes and other comic writers.^[2] E. g.

σκοροδοπανδοκευτριαρτοπόλιδες, Ar. Lys. 458.

κυμινοπριστοκαρδαμόγλυφος, Ar. Vesp. 1357.

γαστροχάρυβδις, Cratinus 397K.

δειπνοπίθηκος, fr. adesp. 321 K.

Even the casual reader of Menander will notice that such words are rarely employed by him. It is hardly fair to regard this last group of words as of very great authority in determining Menander's relation to the Koine, if only for the reason that Aristophanes is even more liable to censure than Menander if they are barred out as bad Greek. They are therefore inserted in this list merely to complete the group of his words not found in the authors of our canon.

For convenience, the words discussed in this chapter are divided into several classes, according to the types which they represent. The classification is not exhaustive, but is believed to include all types which are significant. The groups considered are diminutives, variations from the Attic norm in accent and gender, words having the prefixes ἀ-privative and δυσ-, those with the suffixes -ώδης, -μα, -μός, -ικός (verbal adjectives in -τος), and -ίζω, and verbs (and occasionally other words) which have two or more prepositions prefixed.

Diminutives.

Like any other comic poet, Menander made frequent use of diminutives. In this he simply reflects the speech of everyday life, for the Greeks, like the other nations of southern Europe, were very partial to this form.^[3] Menander has 21 diminutives which do not appear in the classical authors: namely ἁλύσιον = a piece of jewelry, ἑταιρίδιον, θεραπαινίδιον, ἱστάριον, κερμάτιον, κοιτίς, λεβήτιον, μαχαίριον, μειρακίσκος (Plato), νεόττιον = the yolk of an egg, ξενύδριον, παιδισκάριον, πλόκιον, ποτηρίδιον, ῥοίδιον, σακ(κ)ίον, ταμιειδιον, τριπόδιον, φάνιον, χιτωνάριον, χλαμύδιον. Among these words, the following appear before Menander: μαχαίριον, μειρακίσκος, τριπόδιον, χλαμύδιον. But ἁλύσιον in this sense is used by Philippides; also κερμάτιον; νεόττιον in this sense by Diphilus; and σακ(κ)ίον with a different meaning by Aristophanes and Xenophon. The rest seem to have been introduced into literature by Menander. Nearly all are uncommon in all periods.

Variations in accent and gender.

It is not strictly within the scope of our work to discuss discrepancies 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 ἀ-privative.

H. A. Hamilton^[4] 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,^[5] 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. Ἀλεξανδρώδης, βορβορώδης (Plato), ἐργώδης (Plato). This group, however, is too small to be of any significance for our study.

We may note in passing that adjectives in -ώδης are unusually frequent in Thucydides^[6] and Theophrastus.^[7]

 

In order to form a proper estimate of an author's vocabulary we should examine not only the individual words he uses, but also the kinds of words. In comparing Menander's diction with the Koine we should study his use of certain types of words known to have been favorites in Hellenistic Greek. Such a test involves a statistical comparison on the one hand with certain writers of classical Attic, and on the other with typical writers of the Koine. For the former I have selected Aristophanes, Thucydides, Plato and Demosthenes; for the latter, Polybius and Plutarch.

Since a careful estimate of the amount of the extant fragments of Menander gives a total of c. 3393 full lines, or c. 113 pages of 30 lines each, an equal amount has been taken from each author with whom a comparison is made.^[8] The selections of passages in the test authors were made almost at random, care being taken, however, to avoid any works that might furnish misleading results: e.g., the comedies of Aristophanes aimed at the sophists were not taken, because of the great frequency of -ικός words in those plays. A page of 30 Teubner lines was taken as standard. It has not been thought worth while to attempt to equalize the quantitative discrepancy between prose and verse.

Among the types of words which are said to be characteristic of the Koine the most prominent are perhaps the following:^[9]

noun-suffixes: -μα, -μός, -σις;

adjective suffixes: -ικός (verbal adjectives in -τος^[10]);

verb suffixes: -έω, -ίζω;

double compounds.

Of this list, -σις and -έω are very common in the classical period as well, and are therefore of minor importance in determining a writer's connection with the common dialect. The rest, however, became far more frequent in later times, and may fairly be said to furnish as trustworthy criteria as can be found. They will be taken up in the order named.

-μα.

The use of nouns formed with the suffix -μα is admitted to be a characteristic of the Koine. Most scholars have regarded the Ionic dialect as the source from which the later language derived its fondness for words of this type, but Frankel takes issue with this view,^[11] regarding the suffix as well established in old Attic, and as advancing by natural steps to its later popularity. We are not here concerned with the source of the suffix; we are content to note its relatively greater frequency in later times than in the period of the best Attic.

In this connection a passage from Cleomedes, a mathematician of the second century A.D., is interesting. He is criticizing Epicurus, and says (de motu circ. corp. cael. 2.1. p. 166 Ziegler): ἐπεί γε πρὸς τοῖς ἄλλοις καὶ τὰ κατὰ τὴν ἑρμηνείαν αὐτῷ (i. e. τῷ Ἐπικούρῳ) ποικίλως διεφθορότα ἐστί, 'σαρκὸς εὐσταθῆ καταστήματα' λέγοντι καὶ τὰ περὶ ταύτης 'πιστὰ ἐλπίσματα' καὶ 'λίπασμα ὀφθαλμῶν' τὸ δάκρυον ὀνομάζοντι καὶ 'ἱερὰ ἀνακραυγάσματα' καὶ 'γαργαλισμοὺς σώματος' καὶ 'ληκήματα' καὶ ἄλλας τοιαύτας κακὰς ἄτας· ὧν τὰ μὲν ἐκ χαμαιτυπείων ἄν τις εἶναι φήσειε, . . . τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ μέσης τῆς προσευχῆς καὶ τῶν ἐπ᾽ αὐλαῖς (αὐταῖς M, edd.; coni. Ziegler) προσαιτούντων, Ἰουδαϊκά τινα καὶ παρακεχαραγμένα καὶ κατὰ πολὺ τῶν ἑρπετῶν ταπεινότερα.

Each of the phrases criticized contains a word in -μα with one exception; and that one has a word in -μός, the use of which also increased in later Greek. It is apparently this aspect of the diction of Epicurus that Cleomedes is censuring.^[12] We seem therefore to have the direct testimony of an ancient Greek in condemnation of this formation.

How Menander compares with other writers in the use of words in -μα may be seen from the following table:^[13]

Author	No. of Different Words in -μα		No. of pages	Words in -μα in 113 pp.
Menander
⁠a. In Körte's Menandrea	32		60
⁠b. In all fragments	63		113	63
Aristophanes	85	[14]	537	53
Thucydides	104		640	44
Plato	265		2350	43
Demosthenes	116		965	47
Polybius	181		1552	58
Plutarch	498		5177	89

The following 12 words having this suffix do not occur in the Attic writers with the exceptions noted: ἅρπασμα (Plato) γνώρισμα, ἐκτύπωμα (Plato), ἔνδυμα, ἐπικάλυμμα, μνημόνευμα, πατάγημα, ῥύτισμα, τόρευμα, ὑπέκκαυμα, ὑπόθημα, φρύαγμα. Of these ἔνδυμα, πατάγημα, ῥύτισμα, τόρευμα, ὑπόθημα, and φρύαγμα in this particular figurative sense make their first appearance in literature in Menander.

-μός^[15]

Author	No. of different words in -μός		No. of pages	Words in -μός in 113 pp.
Menander
⁠a. In Körte's Menandrea	7		60
⁠b. In all fragments	17		113	17
Aristophanes	17	[16]	537	16
Thucydides	40		640	15
Plato	60		2350	6
Demosthenes	25		965	13
Polybius	75		1552	12
Plutarch	256		5177	16

The following 11 nouns in -μός used by Menander do not appear in the Attic writers with the one exception noted: ἀγαπησμός, ἀναγνωρισμός, ἀρχαϊσμός, βρυχηθμός, κιγκλισμός, μερισμός (Plato), μυκτηρισμός, νουθετησμός, ὀψωνιασμός, συγκλυσμός, τηγανισμός. Of these ἀγαπησμός, ἀρχαϊσμός, μυκτηρισμός, συγκλυσμός, and τηγανισμός are used by no writer before Menander.

 

-ικός

Words with this suffix are rare in early writers, and become more frequent as the "new culture" of the sophists gained increasing popularity in Athens. Peppler^[17] shows clearly that that is the source of this class of words, from their frequency in Xenophon (especially in the Memorabilia), Plato, and Aristotle, as compared with their extreme rarity in earlier writers and from the use made of them by Aristophanes to ridicule the philosophers. Since the educated classes, trained by the new teachers, used them frequently, it began to be the fashion to employ them to give a tone of culture to one's conversation, and the suffix became a favorite. Hence these words are common in later writers, and also in modern Greek.^[18]

Menander's position in the use of this suffix is shown in the following table:

Author	No. of different words in -ικός[19]		No. of pages	Words in -ικός[19] in 113 pp.
Menander
⁠a. In Körte's Menandrea	9		60
⁠b. In all fragments	16		113	16
Aristophanes	93		537	20
Thucydides	38	[20]	640	9
Plato	347	[20]	2350	33
Demosthenes	47		965	13
Polybius	152		1552	26
Plutarch	566		5177	54

The following adjectives in -ικός do not appear in the Attic writers with the exceptions noted: ἀσθενικός, εὑρετικός (Plato), θεραπευτικός (Plato), λογιστικός (Plato), προνοητικός, ταρακτικός, τοπαστικός, φθισικός. On τοπαστικός, read at Epitr. 340 by most editors, see the critical note of Körte ad loc., and the critical appendix in the edition of Professor Capps. Jensen (Rhein. Mus. 65 [1910] p. 546) vouches for the word. Lefebvre, Papyrus de Ménandre, Cairo 1911, is disposed to support the reading of Jensen. If the word is ἀστικός, it is not new.

Of these words, ἀσθενικός, ταρακτικός, and τοπαστικός appear first in Menander.

-τος

Verbal adjectives in -τος were included in this investigation because they appear to be very common in the pages of Menander, rather than because they are frequent in the Koine.^[21] The statistics here collected bear out in general the statement of Jannaris, to the effect that it became far more popular since Graeco-Roman times; except that perhaps their popularity began slightly earlier than he asserts. The fact that they were so late in coming into favor seems to show that it is a mere personal pecularity in Menander. The table follows:

Author	No. of different words in -τος	No. of pages	Words in -τος in 113 pp.
Menander
⁠a. In Körte's Menandrea	29	60
⁠b. In all fragments	69	113	69
Aristophanes	164	537	64
Thucydides	129	640	50
Plato	333	2350	29
Demosthenes	120	965	40
Polybius	263	1552	34
Plutarch	869	5177	110

The following 13 verbal adjectives in -τος are not found in Attic writers: ἀπαρηγόρητος, ἀσυλλόγιστος, ἀχόρταστος, δυσδιάθετος, δυσνουθέτητος, δυσπαρακολούθητος, δύσφευκτος, ἔγχυτος, εὐλοιδόρητος, (καταπλαστόν, κατάστικτον in these meanings), μελίπηκτον, τρίπρατος. Of these only ἀπαρηγόρητος, ἀσυλλόγιστος, ἔγχυτος, and μελίπηκτον are used before Menander.

-ίζω

The formation of verbs in -ίζω seems to have been very popular in the every day language of Athens, from the testimony of comedy.^[22] Probably for this reason these verbs are very frequent in the later speech.^[23] Menander's use of them may be seen from the following table:

Author	No. of different words in -ίζω	No. of pages	Words in -ίζω in 113 pp.
Menander
⁠a. In Körte's Menandrea	34	60
⁠b. In all fragments	57	113	57
Aristophanes	245	537	73
Thucydides	127	640	62
Plato	180	2350	32
Demosthenes	111	965	34
Polybius	185	1552	60
Plutarch	487	5177	55

The following 14 verbs in -ίζω do not appear in classical writers with the exceptions noted: ἀκκίζομαι (Plato), ἀποργίζομαι, ἀφυβρίζω, βαπτίζω (Plato), γαστρίζω (with the meaning "to gorge"), διαμερίζω (Plato), ἐκλακτίζω (=depart), ἐπιμυκτηρίζω, ἡδυλίζω, κλαυμυρίζομαι, κυμβαλίζω, τραγηματίζω. But διαβαπτίζομαι occurs in Demosthenes.

In addition to the above exceptions, ἀφυβρίζω and τραγηματίζω are used before Menander.

Double Compounds.

Another group of words which deserves mention comprises those whose first element consists of two prepositions. They seem to be due to a desire to state a fact more emphatically, or to a wish to make a verb express, in addition to its own meaning, what earlier writers preferred to put into a prepositional phrase or an adverb. The effort to add emphasis to the verb is exemplified by the usage of tragedy, where a compound with one preposition is frequently used with a meaning practically the same as that of the simplex, but apparently stronger.^[24] But this doubling of prepositional prefixes seems to be characteristic mainly of later writers. That they are relatively more frequent there than in the classical period is shown by the following tables, made up on the basis of Liddell and Scott's lexicon. These do not aim at completeness, but include only the chief prepositions beginning such groups, and merely show the tendency of the language.^[25]

1st prep. of cpd.	Total of these cpds. in cl. authors[26]	Total of these cpd. words	Ratio
ἐκ, ἐξ	38	113	1:2.973
ἐπί	80	357	1:4.47
ἀντί	60	393	1:6.55
παρά	24	198	1:8.25
σύν[27]	140	1242	1:8.87
πρός	61	670	1:11.—
πρό	60	697	1:11.6+
περί	2	35	1:17.5
	——	——	———
	465	3705	1:7.967[28]

The significance of these figures may be seen by a comparison with the use of all words by the same group of authors, in relation to their use by later writers: The total number of words on 72 pages of the lexicon, chosen at random, is 3730, of which 858 are found in the classical authors; the ratio being 1:4.347. Since about 1 in 8 of the double compounds is found in classical authors, and about 1 in 4⅓ of all words, the use of the double compounds must have increased nearly a hundred fold in later writers.^[29]

The relative frequency of these forms in Menander, as tested once more by the selected list of classical and later writers, appears from these figures:

Author	No. of different double compounds		No. of pages	No. of double compounds in 113 pp.
Menander
⁠a. In Körte's Menandrea	18		60
⁠b. In all fragments	37		113	37
Aristophanes	123	[30]	537	27
Thucydides	240	[30]	640	67
Plato	276	[30]	2350	19
Demosthenes	151		965	25
Polybius	359		1552	78
Plutarch	959		5177	65

In the extant fragments of Menander there are 16 double compounds which do not appear in classical writers, with the exceptions noted, as follows: ἀντιπαρατίθημι (Plato), ἀπαμφιέννυμι, ἐπεξετάζω, παρείσειμι, παρεξαλλάττω, περικάθημαι, προεγκαλέω, προσδιατρίβω (Plato), συμπεριπατέω (Plato), συναπαιτέω, συναπαρκέω, συνδιορθόω, συνέκκειμαι, συνεκτίθημι, ὑπεισέρχομαι, ὑπέκκαυμα. Of these, ἐπεξετάζω, παρεξαλλάττω, προεγκαλέω, συναπαιτέω, συναπαρκέω, συνέκκειμαι and συνεκτίθημι appear first in Menander (ὑπεισέρχομαι is found in [Pl.] Axioch.).

 

In the case of three of the formations listed in these tables, we see that Menander is surpassed by at least one author of the classical period in the frequency with which he uses them. Thucydides uses more double compounds (67, against 37 for Menander); Thucydides and Aristophanes both have a larger proportion of verbs in -ίζω (62 and 73 respectively, against 57); while both Aristophanes and Plato employ adjectives in -ικός more often (20, 33, and 16 respectively). In the other three Menander leads the classical writers considered here. In the use of words in -μός, however, the difference is so slight as to be negligible (17, to 16 for Aristophanes). There remain, then, -μα and -τος, in which Menander's use goes beyond the rest. In -τος, Aristophanes is a fairly close second (64, compared with 69 in Menander); while even in the words in -μα Menander has not so great a lead as Aristophanes has in -ίζω or Thucydides in double compounds, or Plato in -ικός.

By way of a summary, the following table is added, showing the total number of times each of our test authors uses all the above classes combined in 113 pages:

Author	including -τος	omitting -τος
Menander
⁠a. In Körte's Menandrea (60 pp.)	129	100
⁠b. In all fragments	259	190
Aristophanes	253	189
Thucydides	247	197
Plato	162	133
Demosthenes	172	132
Polybius	268	234
Plutarch	389	279

The position of Menander in the grand totals is hardly worse than that of Thucydides or Aristophanes; not so bad as Thucydides, indeed, if we omit -τος. The result attained, then, by the use of these tests is ample vindication for Menander's vocabulary.

Conclusion.

We have noticed, then, in chapter I, about sixty words used by Menander which are criticized by the grammarians. This seems at first sight a large number to be found in less than 3400 lines, but it must be borne in mind that a considerable number of these lines have been preserved to us solely on account of their deviation from the Attic norm. When we take into account the bitterness of the attacks of his critics upon him, it is reasonable for us to suppose that they allowed but few of his faults of diction, as measured by their standards, to escape. Since we are informed that Menander wrote over one hundred plays,^[31] and since these probably averaged from 1000 to 1100 lines in length, a total of fully 100,000 lines, or at least six times as much as the extant works of Aristophanes, the proportion is reduced to perhaps one in 1700 lines, which is by no means so bad a proportion as we should expect to find. This, however, is mere conjecture, and the problem is complicated by the fact that we have not the works of Phrynichus in their complete form. Moreover, we have no evidence that Phrynichus read all the plays.

A list of Menander's words which are approved by the grammarians has been given in chapter I above. They are of little or no weight here, as was there shown.

The evidence of chapter II is a positive indication which supplements strongly the negative results obtained in the first chapter. If we may judge by those criteria, as we seem justified in doing, no one can condemn Menander's diction without involving Thucydides and Aristophanes in the same condemnation. And in this connection another characteristic of his language remains to be mentioned. A comic poet's verse naturally approaches the speech of the common people whom he portrays. Menander was especially famous in antiquity for his ἠθοποιία.^[32] As the colloquial language is the source out of which the Koine was in a large degree developed, it is to be expected that the vocabulary of comedy will show Koine elements. We should therefore a priori expect to find Menander's diction in a noticeable degree different from that of writers of the classical period. As a matter of fact, however, such tests as we have been able to apply do not fulfill this expectation. Instead therefore of accepting the judgment of that class of critics which denied to Menander a place among commendable Attic writers, we are led to the conclusion that the diction of Menander was good Attic Greek in the main; though it contained colloquial elements in a sufficient degree to justify the atticizing gramamrians in uttering a note of warning. In other words we believe that the attitude of writers like Phrynichus was partisan and extreme.

 

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1. See Peppler, Am. Journ. Philol. 31 (1910) pp. 428 ff.
2. See Jungius, de vocabulis antiquae comoediae Atticae, Utrecht, 1897, p. xii.
3. Cf. for Greek, Jannaris, Historical Greek Grammar p. 292, § 1038b; for Latin, Stolz, Histor. lat. Gram. I 1 p. 574 ff.; for the Romance languages, Meyer-Lübke, Grammaire des langues romanes (French transl). II p. 615 = II p. 566 of German ed.; for French, Nyrop, Grammaire historique de la langue française I² p. 14 § 10.3.
4. H. A. Hamilton, The negative compounds in Greek, diss. Baltimore, 1899, pp. 58 ff.
5. These and the following figures are taken from Hamilton, l. c.
6. Wolcott, New Words in Thucydides. Trans. Am. Phil. Assn. 29 (1898) p. 154.
7. Hindenlang, Sprachliche Untersuchungen zu Theophrasts botanischen Schriften, diss. Strassburg, 1910 (Diss. phil. Argent, sel. XIV 2) p. 188.
8. At first, the average number of examples of each formation was made the basis of comparison, by obtaining the total number of such words used by each author and dividing, by the number of hundreds of pages. This method of testing has been used frequently, and is perfectly accurate in many kinds of investigation: e. g., when all the examples of any phenomenon are taken into account. But after a good deal of deliberation it was decided that in this kind of work such a system is incorrect, inasmuch as an increase in the bulk of an author does not bring with it a corresponding increase of different words of a given type. Thus, the more prolific a writer was, the smaller his proportion per 100 pages of different words of a certain formation is likely to be.
9. Authorities for this selection are cited below under each type as it is taken up.
10. This group does not strictly belong here; see below.
11. Frankel, E., Griechische Denominativa, Gottingen 1906, pp. 225 ff. He bases his contention upon the frequent use of these words in tragedy. To this theory Witkowsky, in his Bericht (Bursians Jahresber. 159 [1912] p. 211) opposes the sound objection that "wäre dem Attischen eine Neigung für diese Bildungen eigen gewesen, so hätten die attischen Philosophen, Historiker usw. sie in reichlicherem Masse verwenden können, indes sind sie bei Platon, Thukydides usw. verhältnismässig selten." Others who have noted their later frequency are Blass, Gram. d. N. T. Griech.² p. 307; Glaser, O., de ratione quae intercedit inter sermonem Polybii et eum qui in titulis S. III, II, I apparet, diss. Gissae 1894, p. 52; Helbing, Gram. d. Septuaginta pp. 124 f; Hindenlang, L., Sprachliche Untersuchungen zu Theophrasts botanischen Schriften, diss. Strassburg 1910 (Diss. phil. Argent, sel. XIV 2) p. 171 n. 1; Jacoby, E., de Antiphontis sophistae περὶ ὁμονοίας libro, diss. Berlin 1908, p. 52; Mayser, Gram. d. griech. Papyri d. Ptolemäerzeit pp. 24, 447; Schmid, W., Atticismus, II pp. 223, 225; Thumb, A., Hdb. d. griech. Dialekten p. 373; Id., Die griech. Sprache im Zeitalter d. Hellenismus pp. 216 f.; Winer-Schmiedel, Gram. d. N. T. Sprachidioms I⁸ §§ 3.2e, 16.2a. Satisfactory statistics in support of these observations are furnished by none of the writers mentioned above with the exception of Mayser.
12. Buresch, K., Pseudosibyllinisches, in Rh. Mus. 47 (1892) p. 347 holds this view, and calls attention to the use of words in -μα in the work which he is there discussing.
13. In this and the following tables only those works of Plato and Demosthenes are considered which are commonly regarded as genuine. For Demosthenes I have followed the fourth edition of Blass (Leipzig, Teubner, 1888–92); for Plato the Teubner edition, except that the letters are taken as genuine on the authority of the men cited in Christ's Litt.⁶ p. 707 n¹. The number of lines in the extant fragments of Menander I have estimated for myself. Since the Lexicon Plutarcheum of Wyttenbach (Leipzig, 1843) does not distinguish the genuine from the spurious among the works ascribed to Plutarch, no attempt at such a distinction has been made here. (Schmid found the same method necessary in his Atticismus. See l. c. IV p. 641 n. 57.) A standard page of 30 Teubner lines is used throughout.
14. This number is taken on the authority of Menge, de poetarum scaen. graec. sermone, diss. Gottingen, 1905, p. 47. He gives also Aeschylus' total as 120, Sophocles' as 94, Euripides' as 205.
15. According to Mayser, l. c, pp. 446 f., -μός stands next to -μα and -σις among noun-derivatives in the papyri of the period which he covers. Cf. also Jannaris, Hist. Greek Gram., p. 289 § 1021; Lobeck, Parerg. p. 511.
16. According to Menge, l. c, who assigns to Aeschylus 18, to Sophocles 6, and to Euripides 20.
17. Peppler, C. W., The Use of the Termination -ικός in Aristophanes for Comic Effect, Am. Jour. of Phil. 31 (1910) pp. 428 ff.
18. Jannaris, l. c, p. 299 §§ 1068, 1070; Thumb, Gr. Spr. p. 178; Mayser, l. c, p. 455.
19. Derivatives from proper names are excluded from these figures.
20. These totals are taken from Peppler, l. c, pp. 429 ff.
21. See Jannaris, Hist. Gr. Gram. p. 297 § 1052; Mayser, l. c, p. 455. Cf. Blass, NT Gram.² p. 38: "Endlich ist das Adj. verb, so gut wie ausgegangen, mit Ausn. der zu Adjekt. erstarrten Formen wie δυνατός."
22. Helbing, Gram. d. Septuaginta, p. 125.
23. Mayser, l. c, p. 466; Winer-Schmiedel, l. c. I⁸ § 3.2e; Thumb, Hdb. d. neugr. Gram. p. 79; Jannaris, l. c, p. 222 § 868.
24. See Rutherford, l. c, pp. 6 ff.
25. The full list of canonical writers as given above in the introduction has been used in compiling these figures.
26. The phrase "classical authors" means the authors designated in the introduction to this study as approved.
27. While a priori it might be supposed that a preposition like σύν might be prefixed to any verb in any period of the language, the statistics seem to show clearly that this use was by no means so common in the classical as in the later period. Instead we find the uncompounded verb used with a modifying phrase. Perhaps their preference for μετά + genitive was a contributory cause of the comparatively infrequent use of the συν- compounds by these authors.
28. With regard to the possibility of error in the figures given above, it should be borne in mind that our lexicons, both special and general, are much more complete for the classical period of Greek literature than for later writers; and therefore the proportions as given are conservative from our point of view. In other words, if we had complete data for all periods, the totals in the third column might be appreciably enlarged, but not those in the second column.
29. See Winer-Schmiedel, l. c. I⁸ § 3.2d; Simcox, W. H., The Language of the New Testament³ p. 43; Bruhn, l. c, pp. 32, 52; and particularly von Hartel, W., Ein griech. Papyrus aus dem Jahre 487 n. Chr., in Wien. St. 5 (1883) p. 24 n. 20.
30. Figures taken from F. Schubert, Zur mehrfachen praefixalen Zusammensetzung im Griechischen, in Xenia Austriaca I pp. 193 ff.
31. Suid. s. v. Μένανδρος says 108.
32. Cf . Plut., Ar. et Menand. Comp. 2, p. 853E προσώποις ἐφαρμόττουσα παντοδαποῖς; Quintil. Inst. Orat. 10.1.69 Menander . . . est omnibus rebus, personis, adfectibus accommodatus; cf. also 71.