Dictionary

hapax legomenon en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌhæ.pæks ləˈɡɑ.məˌnɑn/ (General-American)
• /ˌhæ.pæks ləˈɡɒ.məˌnɒn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον (hápax legómenon, “(something) said only once”), from ἅπαξ (hápax, “once”) and λεγόμενον (legómenon), passive participle of λέγω (légō, “say”).

Meanings

1. A word occurring only once in a given corpus.
   • άγνως is a New Testament hapax legomenon. άγνός occurs two other times in Paul, both occurrences are in 2 Cor. 1999, Casey Wayne Davis, Oral Biblical Criticism: The Influence of the Principles of Orality on the Literary Structure of Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, page 89, footnote:
   • The research discovered 510 different terms. Of these 164 (approximately 32%) were hapax legomena (i.e., there was only once instance in the data), while 107 (approximately 21%) were attested by 10 or more citations. 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 5:
   • There is a lovely technical term for a word that appears once in a body of text: a hapax legomenon (plural: hapax legomena), Greek for “once said.” The term comes from philology, the study of old texts. [2000, Steven Pinker, Words and Rules, →ISBN, page 172:
   • In our case this means that πρωτοβαθρέω is an absolute hapax legomenon, if one assumes that the occurrences of βάθρον in Isa and διαβάθρη in Sam II are the result of corruptions. 2005, Hanna Kahana, Esther: Juxtaposition of the Septuagint Translation with the Hebrew Text, page 129, footnote:

Forms

Coordinates

googlewhack · nonce word · sui generis

Relateds

tetrakis legomenon · tris legomenon · dis legomenon · accidental gap

Synonyms

hapax

Translations (34)

sv hapax (word occurring only once) · ca hàpax legòmenon (word occurring only once) · de hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · de Hapaxlegomenon (word occurring only once) · fi hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · cmn 孤詞 /孤词 (word occurring only once) · he מִלָּה יְחִידָאִית (word occurring only once) · nl hapax (word occurring only once) · de Hapax Legomenon (word occurring only once) · de hapax Legomenon (word occurring only once) · pl hapaks legomenon (word occurring only once) · cs hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · el άπαξ λεγόμενο (word occurring only once) · de Hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · ar لَفْظ فَرِيد (word occurring only once) · pt hápax (word occurring only once) · ru гапакс (word occurring only once) · fr hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · ar لَفْظَة مُفْرَدَة (word occurring only once) · gl hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · ca hàpax (word occurring only once) · ar شَاهِد أُحَادِيّ (word occurring only once) · es legomena hápax (word occurring only once) · hu hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · eo hapakso (word occurring only once) · fa تکبار واژه (word occurring only once) · fr hapax (word occurring only once) · sh jednokratnica (word occurring only once) · id hapax legomena (word occurring only once) · sv hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · es hápax legómenon (word occurring only once) · nl hapax legomenon (word occurring only once) · ar كَلِمَة وَحِيدَة (word occurring only once) · sk hapax legomenon (word occurring only once)