Πλημμελεῖν
to commit an error, to offend
Translated by Ronald Allen25 Jan 2013Vetting: high6 revisions
Translation
[Meaning] to be disorderly, and to be impudent, and to be negligent.1 Also [sc. attested is the related adjective] plhmmele/s ["erroneous"], [meaning something] dissonant [e)kmele/s ], and negligent, and uneducated/boorish.1 [sc. Plato writes in the] Lysis: "to grant that what is useless is friendly is erroneous."2 "[No one...] would be thought to speak erroneously."3
"But because of his own error [plhmme/lhma ] he will be stopped by me from ruling."4 That is, [his own] mis-step.
"And they called upon the owner of the baggage-animal to turn around and to rectify the disorder [plhmmelh/matos ]."5
"But because of his own error [
"And they called upon the owner of the baggage-animal to turn around and to rectify the disorder [
Greek original · Adler’s text
Πλημμελεῖν· τὸ ἀτακτεῖν, καὶ ὑβρίζειν, καὶ ῥᾳθυμεῖν. καὶ πλημμελές, τὸ ἐκμελές, καὶ ῥᾴθυμον, καὶ ἀπαίδευτον. Λύσις· τὸ δὲ ἄχρηστον φίλον ὁμολογεῖν πλημμελές. πλημμελῶς ἂν δόξειε λέγειν. ὁ δὲ διὰ τὸ οἰκεῖον πλημμέλημα ὑπ' ἐμοῦ παυθήσεται τῆς ἀρχῆς. τουτέστι πταῖσμα. τὸν δὲ κεκτημένον τὸ νωτοφόρον ζῷον ὀπίσω τραπέσθαι ἐκέλευον καὶ ἐπανορθοῦσθαι τοῦ πλημμελήματος.
Betacode
*plhmmelei=n: to\ a)taktei=n, kai\ u(bri/zein, kai\ r(a|qumei=n. kai\ plhmmele/s, to\ e)kmele/s, kai\ r(a/|qumon, kai\ a)pai/deuton. *lu/sis: to\ de\ a)/xrhston fi/lon o(mologei=n plhmmele/s. plhmmelw=s a)\n do/ceie le/gein. o( de\ dia\ to\ oi)kei=on plhmme/lhma u(p' e)mou= pauqh/setai th=s a)rxh=s. toute/sti ptai=sma. to\n de\ kekthme/non to\ nwtofo/ron zw=|on o)pi/sw trape/sqai e)ke/leuon kai\ e)panorqou=sqai tou= plhmmelh/matos.
Notes (5)
- The headword is the present active infinitive of the contract verb
plhmmele/w , I make a false musical note, but, as LSJ s.v. notes, in usage it has the metaphorical sense of offending, erring, or being disorderly. The entry is perhaps generated from cognates of the headword attested in the quotations given; if not that, its origin is unclear. - 1The glosses are present active infinitives of the verbs
a)takte/w (I am undisciplined, indecent),u(bri/zw (I outrage, insult), andr(a|qume/w (I neglect, am remiss); see generally LSJ s.vv. The headword is identically glossed in Timaeus' Platonic Lexicon and Photius' Lexicon (pi945 Theodoridis). ↩ - 2Plato, Lysis 222B (web address 1): Socrates stipulates that any friend is useful in some way. ↩
- 3Plato, Laws 9.859E (web address 2, with an
a)/n imported from part of the sentence not quoted): the Athenian contends, against some push-back from Clinias the Cretan, that it is not wrong to say that physically ugly men might be morally beautiful. ↩ - 4Quotation unidentifiable. ↩
- 5Theophylact Simocatta, Histories 2.15.7. It describes an incident in 587 CE where a military column marching under the command of the Byzantine general Komentiolos (Comentiolus, of Thracian origin, d. 602, kappa 1990, alpha 3649; PLRE, pp. 321-5 and Whitby, p. 15-6) was disrupted by a draft animal having lost its load; see Whitby and Whitby, pp. 64-5. ↩
References
J.R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. IIIa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992
Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and His Historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988
Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby, The History of Theophylact Simocatta, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986
Michael Whitby, The Emperor Maurice and His Historian: Theophylact Simocatta on Persian and Balkan Warfare, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988
Michael Whitby and Mary Whitby, The History of Theophylact Simocatta, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986
External resources
- Web address 1 perseus.tufts.edu
- Web address 2 perseus.tufts.edu
Linked from3 entries
- ε2787Ἐπλημμέλησανthey struck a false note, they were off-key[Meaning] they were disorderly, they were lackadaisical. For [something] 'off-key' [means] lackadaisical and unrefined. "[...] in order that anticipating on account of the evils they were off-key in, in the second…
- π1753Πλημμέλειαerror, fault, mistake[no gloss]
- ρ23Ῥᾳθυμεῖνto relax[sc. Means] not, as we say, to spend time on sex, but simply to be idle and to luxuriate; from giving very easy things [rhasta] to the spirit [thumos]. Polybius [writes]: "when everyone was congratulating Publius [=…
Neighbouring entries
Revision history6 revisions · last 19 Sep 2021
- cosmeticule — Catharine Roth
- tweaked translation — William Hutton
- coding — Catharine Roth
- Revised — David Whitehead
- upgraded links, tweak — Catharine Roth
- modified one section of tr; tweaks and cosmetics — David Whitehead
- Translated — Ronald Allen