Δυσξύμβολα

Notes

1. = Photius, Lexicon delta831; cf. Hesychius delta2616, with a masculine nominative version of the headword and a gloss that is similar in meaning, dusepi/gnwstos. Here the headword is neuter nominative/accusative plural (as is the gloss), and is evidently quoted from somewhere. Although there are numerous instances of the word both as spelled here and in the rarer alternative spelling dussumbol- (for some references see the next paragraph), the only other occurrences of the word in this form prior to the Suda are in Pollux 5.150 and Artemidorus 4.56 (although LSJ reports a variant reading for this word, duscu/mblhta).
   In all the attestations of the word, the only one in which the meaning offered here is appropriate is Pollux 5.150, where the word appears in a list of synonyms that include items similar to the glosses used in the lexica cited above, e.g. du/sgnwsta, dusei/kasta. There is far more evidence for the two other meanings offered by LSJ s.v. (web address 1), hard to deal with, driving a hard bargain (e.g. Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.6.3; Plato, Republic 486B; Plutarch, Phocion 5.1; Philostratus, Lives of the Sophists 519), and ill to meet (Artemidorus 4.56 in reference to animals, but see above on this ciatation).