EOIGENA - The story of a Hapax

By Antonio Quartuccio

The author briefly summarizes the story of the adjective 'eoigena'. He describes the events that brought to light in the "Area Christianorum" of the ancient Stabiae a tombstone from the Hadrianic period containing this term, the studies that concluded that it is an absolute hapax, the proposals for a translation of it and, finally, the recognition that it is an original latin term.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Youcanprint
• Release date: Mar 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9791220330589

Book preview

HAPAX

Keywords

Eoigena, Hapax, Stabiae, Castellammare di Stabia.

About the author

M.D. and Specialist in Surgical Pathology, he was born in 1957 in Castellammare di Stabia (Metropolitan City of Naples - Italy).

He has always been passionate about the history of his hometown.

PREFACE

What is a hapax?

It is a very interesting linguistic element because it is found only once, and in fact its meaning, derived from the Greek, is precisely this: term said - or found - only once: in Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον or ἅπαξ εἰρημένον (hapax legόmenon or hapax eireménon).

To be more precise, there are hapax that are found only once in a literary work, or in the writings of an author, or in a language (in this case defined 'absolute' hapax).

Their presence indicates the particular creativity of a writer, who does not limit himself to using already known expressions, but decides to invent something new, which can better describe his