I’ve long been intrigued by the hapax legomenon, the word that appears only once. (See here for a musical version.) There is, as it happens, a hapax in the Pater Noster; I confected this cartoon essay about it (this is just the first page, mind you).
6 responses so far ↓
1 Dash headlong // Jul 2, 2013 at 1:10 am
Only once in what? The bible?…all of world literature? What happens when you google it?…I’m afraid to for fear of breaking google so you try and let me know
2 Doug // Jul 2, 2013 at 2:49 am
It appears nowhere else in Greek literature. Don’t be afraid to google it; it’s well known to Bible scholars.
3 Dash headlong // Jul 4, 2013 at 3:08 am
What is the fifth letter?…gamma?
4 Dash headlong // Jul 4, 2013 at 3:10 am
Oh..it must be upsilon
5 Dash headlong // Jul 4, 2013 at 3:17 am
So, I’m actually more excited about learning of Hapax legomenon, and can’t wait to use it in a sentence…do you know any other examples? (And you should see what my auto correct did to it)
6 Doug // Jul 4, 2013 at 1:16 pm
Oh, there are plenty of examples. One famous one in Dante is “transumanar”; one in Shakespeare is the “scamels” Caliban promises to gather. There are different degrees: you can have a hapax for one text, for one writer’s work, or for an entire language.
(And you can click on the nice cartoon to enlarge it. I guess I made my upsilon too fancypants. You can google “epiousios” for more Bible fun.)