hapax legomenon

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Indo-European *sm̥-der. Ancient Greek ᾰ̔́πᾰξ (hắpăx) Proto-Indo-European *leǵ-der. Proto-Indo-European *léǵ-e-ti Proto-Hellenic *légō Ancient Greek λεγόμενον (legómenon) Ancient Greek ᾰ̔́πᾰξ λεγόμενον (hắpăx legómenon)der. English hapax legomenon From Ancient Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον (hápax legómenon, “(something) said only once”), from ἅπαξ (hápax, “once”) and λεγόμενον (legómenon), passive participle of λέγω (légō, “say”).

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.”

   “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.”