Ὅσα

how many

Translated by Alan Sommerstein9 Oct 2003Vetting: high3 revisions

1 note · 18 words

This word is indefinite and denotes an indefinitely large number.
"How many times have I bitten my heart!"¹

Greek original · Adler’s text

Ὅσα· τὸ μόριον τοῦτο ἀόριστον ὂν ἄπειρον πλῆθος δηλοῖ ἀριθμοῦ. ὅσα δὴ δέδηγμαι τὴν καρδίαν.

Betacode

*(/osa: to\ mo/rion tou=to a)o/riston o)\n a)/peiron plh=qos dhloi= a)riqmou=. o(/sa dh\ de/dhgmai th\n kardi/an.

The Suda chooses to reproduce the shortest and least informative of a series of scholia on Aristophanes, Acharnians 1 (web address 1), which does not even make it clear that o(/sa is here exclamatory.
1This sentence is quoted - or rather, it is misquoted in the same way as here, with e)mautou= omitted from the Aristophanic text - in a remarkable personal statement by the lexicographer in pi 44 in which he laments the evil effects of envy, seeing himself as a victim of it. ↩

Revision history3 revisions · last 13 Feb 2021