Πραγματωδεστέρα τάξις

Notes (1)

1. No equivalent entry in other lexica; and the headword phrase, though presumably quoted from somewhere (or generated by such a quotation), is otherwise unattested.
   Its uncommon adjective is feminine, in the nominative (and vocative) singular, and of comparative degree; see generally LSJ s.v. pragmatw/dhs. There are no other attestations of this exact form (with long final alpha and paroxytone accent); however, there is an instance of the neuter plural form pragmatwde/stera suggra/mmata (more/rather tedious compositions) in Isocrates 10.2 (web address 1) and an instance of the neuter singular ou)de/n e)sti pragmatwde/steron (nothing is more troublesome) in Demosthenes 19.270 (web address 2). Adler does not speculate, but it thus seems plausible that the entry is drawn from Attic oratory and rhetoric. (For an instance of the superlative pragmatwdesta/th in another genre, see Aeneas Tacticus 31.16, on sending secret messages.)
1. 1The gloss is the comparative form of the two-ending adjective dusxerh/s, e/s (hard to take in hand, manage; awkward); see generally LSJ s.v. [In her critical apparatus Adler reports that ms G transmits dustuxeste/ra, more/rather unfortunate; see generally LSJ s.v. dustuxh/s.] ↩