View source for Hapax legomenon

{{Short description|Word appearing only once in a text or record}}
{{redirect|Hapax legomena|the film series|Hapax Legomena{{!}}''Hapax Legomena''}}
{{Italic title}}
[[File:Moby Dick Words.gif|upright=1.35|thumb|right|Rank-frequency plot for words in the novel ''[[Moby-Dick]]''. About 44% of the distinct set of words in this novel, such as "matrimonial", occur only once, and so are ''hapax legomena'' (red). About 17%, such as "dexterity", appear twice (so-called ''dis legomena'', in blue). [[Zipf's law]] predicts that the words in this plot should approximate a straight line with slope −1.]]

In [[corpus linguistics]], a '''''hapax legomenon''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|æ|p|ə|k|s|_|l|ᵻ|ˈ|ɡ|ɒ|m|ᵻ|n|ɒ|n}} also {{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|æ|p|æ|k|s}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|eɪ|p|æ|k|s}};<ref>{{Cite OED|hapax legomenon}}</ref><ref>{{Cite Dictionary.com|hapax legomenon}}</ref> {{abbr|pl.|plural}} ''hapax legomena''; sometimes abbreviated to '''''hapax''''', plural ''hapaxes'') is a [[word]] or an [[Fixed expression|expression]] that occurs only once within a context: either in the written record of an entire [[language]], in the works of an author, or in a single text. The term is also sometimes used to describe a word that occurs in just one of an author's works but more than once in that particular work. ''Hapax legomenon'' is a [[Romanization of Greek|transliteration]] of [[Ancient Greek language|Greek]] {{lang|grc|ἅπαξ λεγόμενον}}, meaning "said once".<ref>{{LSJ|a(/pac|ἅπαξ|ref}}</ref>

The related terms '''''dis legomenon''''', '''''tris legomenon''''', and '''''tetrakis legomenon''''' respectively ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|ɪ|s}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|r|ɪ|s}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɛ|t|r|ə|k|ᵻ|s}}) refer to double, triple, or quadruple occurrences, but are far less commonly used.

''Hapax legomena'' are quite common, as predicted by [[Zipf's law]],<ref>Paul Baker, Andrew Hardie, and Tony McEnery, ''A Glossary of Corpus Linguistics'', Edinburgh University Press, 2006, page 81, {{ISBN|0-7486-2018-4}}.</ref> which states that the frequency of any word in a [[Text corpus|corpus]] is inversely proportional to its rank in the frequency table. For large corpora, about 40% to 60% of the words are ''hapax legomena'', and another 10% to 15% are ''dis legomena''.<ref>András Kornai, ''Mathematical Linguistics'', Springer, 2008, page 72, {{ISBN|1-84628-985-8}}.</ref> Thus, in the [[Brown Corpus]] of American English, about half of the 50,000 distinct words are ''hapax legomena'' within that corpus.<ref>Kirsten Malmkjær, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IG7tE4-p-uUC&pg=PA87 The Linguistics Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101132141/https://books.google.com/books?id=IG7tE4-p-uUC&pg=PA87 |date=2020-01-01 }}'', 2nd ed, Routledge, 2002, {{ISBN|0-415-22210-9}}, p. 87.</ref>

''Hapax legomenon'' refers to the appearance of a word or an expression in a body of text, not to either its origin or its prevalence in speech. It thus differs from a [[nonce word]], which may never be recorded, may find currency and may be widely recorded, or may appear several times in the work which [[Protologism|coins]] it, and so on.

==Significance==
[[File:Workman'sPaulineHapaxes.svg|upright=1.35|thumb|right|Workman's count of ''hapax legomena'' in the Epistles of the New Testament]]
[[File:Workman'sShakespearePlays.svg|upright=1.35|thumb|right|Workman's count of ''hapax legomena'' in Shakespeare's plays]]
''Hapax legomena'' in ancient texts are usually difficult to decipher, since it is easier to infer meaning from multiple contexts than from just one. For example, many of the remaining undeciphered [[Maya script|Mayan glyphs]] are ''hapax legomena'', and Biblical (particularly [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]; see [[#Hebrew|§ Hebrew]]) ''hapax legomena'' sometimes pose problems in translation. ''Hapax legomena'' also pose challenges in [[natural language processing]].<ref>Christopher D. Manning and Hinrich Schütze, ''Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing'',MIT Press, 1999, page 22, {{ISBN|0-262-13360-1}}.</ref>

Some scholars consider ''Hapax legomena'' useful in determining the authorship of written works. [[P. N. Harrison]], in ''The Problem of the Pastoral Epistles'' (1921)<ref>P.N. Harrison. ''The Problem of the Pastoral Epistles''. Oxford University Press, 1921.</ref> made ''hapax legomena'' popular among [[Biblical studies|Bible scholars]], when he argued that there are considerably more of them in the three [[Pastoral Epistles]] than in other [[Pauline Epistles]]. He argued that the number of ''hapax legomena'' in a putative author's corpus indicates his or her vocabulary and is characteristic of the author as an individual.

Harrison's theory has faded in significance due to a number of problems raised by other scholars. For example, in 1896, [[Walter Percy Workman|W. P. Workman]] found the following numbers of ''hapax legomena'' in each [[Pauline Epistles|Pauline Epistle]]:
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Pauline Epistle
!''Hapax legomena''
|-
|[[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]]
|113
|-
|[[First Epistle to the Corinthians|I Corinthians]]
|110
|-
|[[Second Epistle to the Corinthians|II Corinthians]]
|99
|-
|[[Epistle to the Galatians|Galatians]]
|34
|-
|[[Epistle to the Ephesians|Ephesians]]
|43
|-
|[[Epistle to the Philippians|Philippians]]
|41
|-
|[[Epistle to the Colossians|Colossians]]
|38
|-
|[[First Epistle to the Thessalonians|I Thessalonians]]
|23
|-
|[[Second Epistle to the Thessalonians|II Thessalonians]]
|11
|-
|[[First Epistle to Timothy|I Timothy]]
|82
|-
|[[Second Epistle to Timothy|II Timothy]]
|53
|-
|[[Epistle to Titus|Titus]]
|33
|-
|[[Epistle to Philemon|Philemon]]
|5
|}

At first glance, the last three totals (for the Pastoral Epistles) are not out of line with the others.<ref name="Workman">Workman, "The Hapax Legomena of St. Paul", ''[[Expository Times]]'', '''7''' (1896:418), noted in [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14727b.htm ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'', ''s.v.'' "Epistles to Timothy and Titus"] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110408170757/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14727b.htm |date=2011-04-08 }}.</ref> To take account of the varying length of the epistles, Workman also calculated the average number of ''hapax legomena'' per page of the [[Novum Testamentum Graece|Greek text]], which ranged from 3.6 to 13, as summarized in the diagram on the right.<ref name="Workman" /> Although the Pastoral Epistles have more ''hapax legomena'' per page, Workman found the differences to be moderate in comparison to the variation among other Epistles. This was reinforced when Workman looked at several [[Shakespeare's plays|plays]] by [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]], which showed similar variations (from 3.4 to 10.4 per page of Irving's one-volume edition), as summarized in the second diagram on the right.<ref name="Workman" />

Apart from author identity, there are several other factors that can explain the number of ''hapax legomena'' in a work:<ref>Steven J. DeRose. "A Statistical Analysis of Certain Linguistic Arguments Concerning the Authorship of the Pastoral Epistles." Honors thesis, Brown University, 1982; Terry L. Wilder. "A Brief Defense of the Pastoral Epistles' Authenticity". ''Midwestern Journal of Theology'' '''2'''.1 (Fall 2003), 38–4. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20071017013627/http://www.mbts.edu/pdfs/academics/wilder.pdf on-line])</ref>
* text length: this directly affects the expected number and percentage of ''hapax legomena''; the brevity of the Pastoral Epistles also makes any statistical analysis problematic.
* text topic: if the author writes on different subjects, of course many subject-specific words will occur only in limited contexts.
* text audience: if the author is writing to a peer rather than a student, or their spouse rather than their employer, again quite different vocabulary will appear.
* time: over the course of years, both the language and an author's knowledge and use of language will change.

In the particular case of the Pastoral Epistles, all of these variables are quite different from those in the rest of the Pauline corpus, and ''hapax legomena'' are no longer widely accepted as strong indicators of authorship; those who reject Pauline authorship of the Pastorals rely on other arguments.<ref>Mark Harding.'' What are they saying about the Pastoral epistles?'', Paulist Press, 2001, page 12. {{ISBN|0-8091-3975-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8091-3975-0}}.</ref>

There are also subjective questions over whether two forms amount to "the same word": dog vs. dogs, clue vs. clueless, sign vs. signature; many other gray cases also arise. The ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' points out that, although there are 1,500 ''hapaxes'' in the [[Hebrew Bible]], only about 400 are not obviously related to other attested word forms.<ref name="JE">Article on [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7236-hapax-legomena Hapax Legomena] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019231958/http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7236-hapax-legomena |date=2012-10-19 }} in ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]''. Includes a list of all the Old Testament ''hapax legomena'', by book.</ref>

A final difficulty with the use of ''hapax legomena'' for authorship determination is that there is considerable variation among works known to be by a single author, and disparate authors often show similar values. In other words, ''hapax legomena'' are not a reliable indicator. Authorship studies now usually use a wide range of measures to look for patterns rather than relying upon single measurements.

==Computer science==
In the fields of [[computational linguistics]] and [[natural language processing]] (NLP), esp. [[corpus linguistics]] and [[machine learning|machine-learned]] NLP, it is common to disregard ''hapax legomena'' (and sometimes other infrequent words), as they are likely to have little value for computational techniques. This disregard has the added benefit of significantly reducing the memory use of an application, since, by [[Zipf's law]], many words are hapax legomena.<ref>D. Jurafsky and J.H. Martin (2009). ''Speech and Language Processing''. Prentice Hall.</ref>

==Examples==
The following are some examples of ''hapax legomena'' in languages or [[Text corpus|corpora]].

=== Arabic ===
In the [[Qurʾān]]:
* The proper nouns ''Iram'' (Q 89:7, [[Iram of the Pillars]]), ''Bābil'' (Q 2:102, [[Babylon]]), ''Bakka(t)'' (Q 3:96, [[Bakkah]]), ''Jibt'' (Q 4:51), ''Ramaḍān'' (Q 2:185, [[Ramadan]]), ''ar-Rūm'' (Q 30:2, [[Byzantine Empire]]), ''Tasnīm'' (Q 83:27), ''Qurayš'' (Q 106:1, [[Quraysh (surah)|Quraysh]]), ''Majūs'' (Q 22:17, [[Magian]]/[[Zoroastrian]]), ''Mārūt'' (Q 2:102, [[Harut and Marut]]), ''Makka(t)'' (Q 48:24, [[Mecca]]), ''Nasr'' (Q 71:23), ''(Ḏū) an-Nūn'' (Q 21:87) and ''Hārūt'' (Q 2:102, [[Harut and Marut]]) occur only once.<ref>Orhan Elmaz. "Die Interpretationsgeschichte der koranischen Hapaxlegomena." Doctoral thesis, University of Vienna, 2008, page 29</ref>
* ''zanjabīl'' ({{lang|ar|زَنْجَبِيل}} – [[ginger]]) is a Qurʾānic hapax (Q 76:17).
* ''[[Zamhareer|zamharīr]]'' ({{lang|ar|زَمْهَرِيرًۭ}}) is a Qurʾānic hapax (Q 76:13), usually glossed as referring to extreme cold.<ref name="Tottoli2008">Tottoli, Roberto, and روبرتو توتولي. “The Qur’an, Qur’anic Exegesis and Muslim Traditions: The Case of ''zamharīr'' (Q. 76:13) Among Hell’s Punishments / القرآن والتفاسير والروايات الاسلامية: سورة الانسان آية رقم 13: الزمهرير من ألوان العقوبة في جهنم.” Journal of Qur’anic Studies, vol. 10, no. 1, Edinburgh University Press, 2008, pp. 142–52, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25728276.</ref>
* The [[epitheton ornans]] ''aṣ-ṣamad'' ({{lang|ar|الصَّمَد}} – [[Names of God in Islam|the One besought]]) is a Qurʾānic hapax (Q 112:2).
* ''ṭūd'' ({{lang|ar|طُودْ}} - [[mountain]]) is a Qurʾānic hapax (Q 26:63).

===Chinese and Japanese===

Classical Chinese and Japanese literature contains many [[Chinese characters]] that feature only once in the corpus, and their meaning and pronunciation has often been lost. Known in Japanese as {{nihongo||孤語|kogo}}, literally "lonely characters", these can be considered a type of ''hapax legomenon''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPexBQAAQBAJ&q=alex+kerr+%22hapax%22&pg=PT82|title=Lost Japan|last=Kerr|first=Alex|date=2015-09-03|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=9780141979755|language=en|access-date=2021-05-15|archive-date=2022-06-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601202345/https://books.google.com/books?id=GPexBQAAQBAJ&q=alex+kerr+%22hapax%22&pg=PT82|url-status=live}}</ref> For example, the ''[[Classic of Poetry]]'' ({{circa|1000 BC}}) uses the character {{lang|zh|[[:wiktionary:篪|篪]]}} exactly once in the verse {{lang|zh|「伯氏吹塤, 仲氏吹篪」}}, and it was only through the discovery of a description by [[Guo Pu]]{{citation needed|date=July 2025}} (276–324 AD) that the character could be associated with a [[Chi (instrument)|specific type of ancient flute]].

===English===
[[File:Love's Labour's Lost - first quarto (1598) - page 47 - honorificabilitudinitatibus.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|The word "[[honorificabilitudinitatibus]]" as found in the first edition of [[William Shakespeare]]'s play ''[[Love's Labour's Lost]]'']]

It is fairly common for authors to "coin" new words to convey a particular meaning or for the sake of entertainment, without any suggestion that they are "proper" words. For example, [[P.G. Wodehouse]] and [[Lewis Carroll]] frequently coined novel words. ''Indexy'', below, appears to be an example of this.
* ''Flother'', as a synonym for [[snow]]flake, is a ''hapax legomenon'' of written English found in a manuscript entitled ''[[The XI Pains of Hell]]'' ({{circa|1275}}).<ref>{{Cite OED|flother}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://historicalthesaurus.arts.gla.ac.uk/category/?type=search&qsearch=Flother%20&word=Flother%20&page=1#id=7970|title=Historical Thesaurus :: Search|website=historicalthesaurus.arts.gla.ac.uk|access-date=2017-10-28|archive-date=2017-10-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171028201222/http://historicalthesaurus.arts.gla.ac.uk/category/?type=search&qsearch=Flother%20&word=Flother%20&page=1#id=7970|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''[[Honorificabilitudinitatibus]]'' is a ''hapax legomenon'' of [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s works, coming from Erasmus' ''[[Works_of_Erasmus#Adages_(1500-1520)|Adagia]]''
* ''Indexy'', in [[Bram Stoker]]'s ''[[Dracula]]'', used as an adjective to describe a situational state with no other further use in the language: "If that man had been an ordinary lunatic I would have taken my chance of trusting him; but he seems so mixed up with the Count in an indexy kind of way that I am afraid of doing anything wrong by helping his fads."<ref name="spectator.co.uk">{{Cite web|url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-weird-world-of-the-hapax-legomenon/amp|title=The weird world of the hapax legomenon &#124; the Spectator|access-date=2020-11-04|archive-date=2022-06-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601202346/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-weird-world-of-the-hapax-legomenon/amp|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Manticratic'', meaning "of the rule by the Prophet's family or clan", was apparently invented by [[T. E. Lawrence]] and appears once in ''[[Seven Pillars of Wisdom]]''.<ref name="spectator.co.uk"/>
* ''Nortelrye'', a word for "education", occurs only once in [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]]'s ''[[The Reeve's Tale]]''.
* ''Sassigassity'', perhaps with the meaning of "audacity", occurs only once in [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]'s short story "A Christmas Tree".
* ''Slæpwerigne'', "sleep-weary", occurs exactly once in the [[Old English]] corpus, in the ''[[Exeter Book]]''. There is debate over whether it means "weary with sleep" or "weary for sleep".

===German===
[[File:BSB Clm 14098, f. 121r - Muspilli page 5 - dar nimac denne mak andremo helfan uora demo muspille.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|''[[Muspilli]]'' line 57: "dar nimac denne mak andremo helfan uora demo muspille" ([[Bavarian State Library]] Clm 14098, f. 121r)]]
* The name of the 9th-century poem ''[[Muspilli]]'' is a [[back-formation]] from "muspille", [[Old High German]] ''hapax legomenon'' of unclear meaning only found in this text (see {{Section link|Muspilli|Etymology}} for discussion).

===Ancient Greek===
According to classical scholar [[Clyde Pharr]], "the ''[[Iliad]]'' has 1,097 ''hapax legomena'', while the ''[[Odyssey]]'' has 868".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Pharr|first=Clyde|title=Homeric Greek, a book for beginners|url=https://archive.org/details/homericgreekabo00phargoog|year=1920|publisher=D. C. Heath & Co., Publishers|page=xxii}}</ref> Others have defined the term differently, however, and count as few as 303 in the ''Iliad'' and 191 in the ''Odyssey''.<ref>Reece, Steve. "Hapax Legomena," in Margalit Finkelberg (ed.), ''Homeric Encyclopedia'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 2011) 330-331. [https://www.academia.edu/30776971/Homeric_Encyclopaedia_Digressions_Epithets_Hapax_Legomena_Hospitality_Metacharacterism_Type-Scenes Hapax Legomena in Homer] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200101232533/https://www.academia.edu/30776971/Homeric_Encyclopaedia_Digressions_Epithets_Hapax_Legomena_Hospitality_Metacharacterism_Type-Scenes |date=2020-01-01 }}</ref>
* ''panaōrios'' ({{lang|grc|παναώριος}}), [[ancient Greek]] for "very untimely", is one of many words that occur only once in the ''Iliad''.<ref>(''Il''. 24.540)</ref>
* The Greek [[New Testament]] contains 686 local ''hapax legomena'', which are sometimes called "New Testament hapaxes".<ref>e.g. Richard Bauckham ''The Jewish world around the New Testament: collected essays'' I p431 2008: "a New Testament hapax, which occurs 19 times in Hermas. . ."</ref> 62 of these occur in [[1 Peter]] and 54 occur in [[2 Peter]].<ref>John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, ''The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament Edition'', David C. Cook, 1983, page 860, {{ISBN|0-88207-812-7}}.</ref>
* ''[[Epiousion]]'', often translated into English as ″daily″ in the [[Lord's Prayer]] in [[Matthew 6:11]] and [[Luke 11:3]], occurs nowhere else in all of the known ancient Greek literature.
* The word ''[[aphedron|aphedrōn]]'' (ἀφεδρών) "latrine" in the Greek New Testament occurs only twice, in Matthew 15:17 and Mark 7:19, but since it is widely considered that the writer of the [[Gospel of Matthew]] used the [[Gospel of Mark]] as a source, it may be regarded as a ''hapax legomenon''. It was mistakenly translated as "bowel", until an inscription from the ''Lex de astynomis Pergamenorum'' ("Law of the town clerks of [[Pergamon]]") confirmed it meant "latrine".<ref>G. Klaffenbach, Lex de astynomis Pergamenorum (1954).</ref><ref>The nature and function of water, baths, bathing, and hygiene from ... - Page 252 Cynthia Kosso, Anne Scott - 2009 "[[Günther Klaffenbach]], "Die Astynomeninschrift von Pergamon," Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. Klasse für Sprachen, Literatur und Kunst 6 (1953), 3–25 took charge of providing a full, yet strictly philological, commentary. "</ref>

===Hebrew===
The number of distinct ''hapax legomena'' in the [[Hebrew Bible]] is 1,480 (out of a total of 8,679 distinct words used).<ref>{{cite book |author=Zuckermann, Ghil'ad |author-link=Ghil'ad Zuckermann |title=Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |year=2020 |isbn=9780199812790 |url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/revivalistics-9780199812790?lang=en&cc=us |access-date=2020-04-30 |archive-date=2020-05-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200505121004/https://global.oup.com/academic/product/revivalistics-9780199812790?lang=en&cc=us |url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|112}} However, due to Hebrew [[Triliteral|roots]], [[suffixes]] and [[prefixes]], only 400 are "true" ''hapax legomena''.<ref name="JE"/> A full list can be seen at the [[Jewish Encyclopedia]] entry for "''Hapax Legomena''".<ref name="JE"/>

Some examples include:
* ''Akut'' (אקוט&nbsp;– fought), only appears once in the Hebrew Bible, in Psalm 95:10.
* ''Atzei Gopher'' (עֲצֵי-גֹפֶר&nbsp;– [[Gopher wood]]) is mentioned once in the Bible, in Genesis 6:14, in the instruction to make Noah's ark "of gopher wood". Because of its single appearance, its literal meaning is lost. ''Gopher'' is simply a [[transliteration]], although scholars tentatively suggest that the intended wood is [[cypress]].<ref>"Ark, Design and Size" ''Aid to Bible Understanding'', Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, 1971.</ref>
* ''Gvina'' (גבינה&nbsp;– [[cheese]]) is a ''hapax legomenon'' of [[Biblical Hebrew]], found only in Job 10:10. The word has become extremely common in [[Hebrew language|modern Hebrew]].
* ''Zechuchith'' (זכוכית) is a ''hapax legomenon'' of Biblical Hebrew, found only in Job 28:17. The word derives from the root זכה ''z-ch-h'', meaning clear/transparent and refers to [[glass]] or [[crystal]]. In Modern Hebrew, it is used for "glass".
* ''[[Lilith#In the Hebrew Bible|Lilith]]'' (לילית) occurs once in the [[Hebrew Bible]], in Isaiah 34:14, which describes the desolation of [[Edom]]. It is translated several ways{{which?|date=December 2025}}. The following verse, Isaiah 34:15, contains another ''hapax legomenon'', the word ''[[qippoz]]'' (קִפוֹז), which has been translated as [[owl]], [[Psammophis lineolatus|arrow snake]], and [[sand partridge]] in different versions of the text.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Blair |first=Judit M. |title=De-demonising the Old Testament: An Investigation of Azazel, Lilith, Deber, Qeteb and Reshef in the Hebrew Bible |publisher=Mohr Siebeck |year=2009 |isbn=9783161501319 |edition= |location=Tubingen, Germany |pages=92–95}}</ref>

===Hungarian===
* The word ''ímés'' is mentioned in [[István Székely]]'s 1559 book entitled ''Chronica ez vilagnac ieles dolgairol''.<ref>[http://plone.iti.mta.hu/rec.iti/Members/szerk/ghesaurus-1/GHESAURUS-SZINES.pdf Tanulmányok Szentmártoni Szabó Géza hatvanadik születésnapjára] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519124404/http://plone.iti.mta.hu/rec.iti/Members/szerk/ghesaurus-1/GHESAURUS-SZINES.pdf |date=2023-05-19 }} (in Hungarian)</ref> According to the theory of literary historian Géza Szentmártoni Szabó, the word means 'half-asleep'.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/6771300 | title=A turul-monda szövegkapcsolatai a középkori írásos hagyományunkban. In: Középkortörténeti tanulmányok 6. Szerk.: G. Tóth Péter, Szabó Pál. Szeged, 2010. 249-259. | last1=Tibor | first1=Szőcs }}</ref>

===Irish===
* ''chomneibi'', an adjective of unknown meaning describing a [[lath]], only appears in ''[[Triads of Ireland]]'' #169 (prior to 850 AD).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/donncha/focal/features/triads/triad169.html|title=The Triads of Ireland|website=www.smo.uhi.ac.uk|access-date=2019-01-28|archive-date=2016-04-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409215807/http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/gaeilge/donncha/focal/features/triads/triad169.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Italian===
* ''Ramogna'' (possibly meaning "hope") is mentioned only once in [[Italian literature]], specifically in [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy|Divina Commedia]]'' (''[[Purgatorio]]'' XI, 25).{{citation needed|date=December 2025}}
* The verb ''attuia'' appears once in the ''Commedia'' (''[[Purgatorio]]'' XXXIII, 48). The meaning is contested but usually interpreted as "darkens" or "impedes". Some manuscripts give the alternative hapax ''accuia'' instead.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.treccani.it//enciclopedia/attuiare_(Enciclopedia-Dantesca)|title=attuiare in "Enciclopedia Dantesca"|website=www.treccani.it|language=it-IT|access-date=2019-01-28|archive-date=2018-11-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117233710/http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/attuiare_(Enciclopedia-Dantesca)/|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Trasumanar'' is another ''hapax legomenon'' mentioned in the ''Commedia'' (''[[Paradiso]]'' I, 70, translated as "Passing beyond the human" by [[Allen Mandelbaum|Mandelbaum]]).
* ''Ultrafilosofia'', which means "beyond the philosophy" appears in [[Giacomo Leopardi|Leopardi]]'s ''[[Giacomo Leopardi#The Zibaldone|Zibaldone]]'' (Zibaldone 114–115 – June, 7th 1820).

===Latin===
* ''Deproeliantis'', a participle of the word ''deproelior'', which means "to fight fiercely" or "to struggle violently", appears only in line 11 of Horace's ''Ode'' 1.9.
* ''Mactatu'', singular ablative of ''mactatus'', meaning "because of the killing". It occurs only in ''[[De rerum natura]]'' by [[Lucretius]].
* ''Mnemosynum'', presumably meaning a keepsake or ''aide-memoire'', appears only in Poem 12 of [[Catullus]]'s ''[[Poetry of Catullus|Carmina]]''.
* ''Scortillum'', a diminutive form meaning "little prostitute", occurs only in Poem 10 of [[Catullus]]'s [[Poetry of Catullus|Carmina]], line 3.
* ''Terricrepo'', an adjective apparently referring to a thunderous oratory method, occurs only in Book 8 of [[Augustine]]'s ''Confessions''.
* ''[[Romanitas]]'', a noun signifying "Romanism" or "the Roman way" or "the Roman manner", appears only in Tertullian's ''de Pallio''.<ref>Lewis, C.T. & Short, C. (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford University, Clarendon Press, p.1599.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tertullian/tertullian.pallio.shtml|title=Tertullian: De Pallio|access-date=2015-11-28|archive-date=2016-03-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304120956/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/tertullian/tertullian.pallio.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Arepo'' is a potential proper name only found in the [[Sator square]]. It may be derived by spelling ''opera'' backwards.
* ''Eoigena'', an adjective referred to the sun and signifying "one born in the east",<ref>Glare, P. G. W. (1968).&nbsp;Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon P., p. 611.</ref><ref>Sblendorio Cugusi M. T. CLE 428 e lat. Eoigena. Studia philologica valentina, 2008, vol. 11, pp. 327–350. (in italian).</ref> appears only in an epigraph found in [[Castellammare di Stabia]] (the ancient [[Stabiae]]).

===Persian===
* ''Paland'' (پلند, "[[Names of Poland#Lechia|Poland]]"; transliterated into [[Gurmukhi]] as ਪਿਲੰਦੇ) appears only once in the fourth section of the [[Hikaaitaan]], a work of [[Persian language|Persian-language]] literature from [[Punjab]] only found in the [[Dasam Granth]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/zafarnameh_hikayat_urdu/page/71/mode/1up|title=Zafarnama & Hikayats Urdu Translation|language=ur,fa|page=71}}</ref> This word appears nowhere else in either Punjabi or [[Persian literature]], and is therefore considered to be valuable in deducing the currently disputed authenticity of the Dasam Granth.

=== Slavic ===
* ''Vytol'' (вытол) is a ''hapax legomenon'' of the known corpus of the Medieval Russian [[birch bark manuscript]]s. The word occurs in [https://web.archive.org/web/20171031191111/http://gramoty.ru/index.php?act=full&id=612 inscription no. 600] from [[Novgorod]], dated ca. 1220–1240, in the context "[the] ''vytol'' has been caught" (вытоло изловили, ''vytolo izlovili''). According to [[Andrey Zaliznyak]], the word does not occur anywhere else, and its meaning is not known.<ref>Andrey Zaliznyak, [http://polit.ru/article/2012/10/04/zaliznyak/ Новгородская Русь по берестяным грамотам: взгляд из 2012 г.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181103131217/http://polit.ru/article/2012/10/04/zaliznyak/ |date=2018-11-03 }} (The Novgorod Rus' according to its birch bark manuscripts: a view from 2012), transcript of a lecture.</ref> Various interpretations, such as a personal name or the social status of a person, have been proposed.<ref>А. Л. Шилов (A.L. Shilov), [http://docplayer.ru/29048057-Etnonimy-i-neslavyanskie-antroponimy-berestyanyh-gramot.html ЭТНОНИМЫ И НЕСЛАВЯНСКИЕ АНТРОПОНИМЫ БЕРЕСТЯНЫХ ГРАМОТ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107025853/http://docplayer.ru/29048057-Etnonimy-i-neslavyanskie-antroponimy-berestyanyh-gramot.html |date=2017-11-07 }} (Ethnonyms and non-Slavic anthroponyms in birch bark manuscripts)</ref>

=== Spanish ===
* ''Atafea'' is a ''hapax legomenon'' appearing in a proverb reported by [[Blasco de Garay]] in the 16th century (''"uno muere de atafea y otro la desea"''). The meaning of the word was not known, and was initially interpreted to mean ''satiety.'' Modern etymologists link it to the north-African Arab term tafaya/attatfíha, which refers to a stew of onion and coriander.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://etimologias.dechile.net/?ha.pax | title=HÁPAX }}</ref>
* ''Esi'', believed to derive from the Latin conjunction ''etsi'' "although", appears only once in [[Álvaro de Luna]]'s ''Virtuosas e claras mugeres'' (1446).<ref>Rodríguez, Lola Pons. "Frecuencia lingüística y novedad gramatical. Propuestas sobre el hápax y las formas aisladas, con ejemplos del XV castellano." Iberoromania 2013, no. 78 (2013): 222-245.</ref>

==In popular culture==
* The avant-garde filmmaker [[Hollis Frampton]] made a series of seven films from 1971 to 1972 titled ''[[nostalgia (Frampton film)|Hapax Legomena I: Nostalgia]]'' to ''Hapax Legomena VII: Special Effects''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0289758/ |title=Hollis Frampton at IMDB |website=[[IMDb]] |access-date=2014-04-14 |archive-date=2014-06-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606223600/http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0289758/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
* ''Hapax legomenon'' as a term became briefly prominent in Britain following the [[University Challenge 2014–15|2014–15 University Challenge]] Final, after videos went [[Viral phenomenon|viral]] of [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge|Gonville and Caius]] student Ted Loveday swiftly giving it as a correct answer when presenter [[Jeremy Paxman]] had only managed to ask "Meaning 'said only once', what two-word Greek term denotes a word...".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11537719/University-Challenge-winner-Ted-Loveday-I-learned-my-answers-on-Wikipedia.html|title=University Challenge winner Ted Loveday: I learned my answers on Wikipedia|date=15 April 2015 |access-date=2020-01-27|archive-date=2020-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029055438/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11537719/University-Challenge-winner-Ted-Loveday-I-learned-my-answers-on-Wikipedia.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/14/this-guy-just-won-university-challenge-with-hapax-legomenon-and-an-awesome-knit-jumper-5149259/|title = This guy just won University Challenge with one ridiculous answer|date = 14 April 2015|access-date = 26 April 2017|archive-date = 8 May 2017|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170508121218/http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/14/this-guy-just-won-university-challenge-with-hapax-legomenon-and-an-awesome-knit-jumper-5149259/|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/best-ever-university-challenge-contestant-5518411|title = 'Best ever' University Challenge contestant praised after super-fast answers|website = [[Daily Mirror]]|date = 14 April 2015|access-date = 27 January 2020|archive-date = 27 January 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200127065535/https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/best-ever-university-challenge-contestant-5518411|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20151015132545/http://sabotagetimes.com/funny/hapax-legonemum-a-second-by-second-deconstruction-of-that-loveday-vine sabotagetimes.com]}}; [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeDk7QtwwBw youtube.com]  {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170411100915/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeDk7QtwwBw |date=2017-04-11 }}</ref>
* The word '''quizzaciously''' was cited by [[Vsauce]] host [[Michael Stevens (educator)|Michael Stevens]] in 2015 as an example of a ''hapax legomenon'', with [[Google Search|Google]] only [[Googlewhack#Variations|returning one search result for the word]] at the time despite being included in the [[Oxford English Dictionary]].<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/fCn8zs912OE Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150915212832/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCn8zs912OE&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|date=September 15, 2015|title=The Zipf Mystery|author1=Vsauce|author-last2=Stevens|author-first2=Michael|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCn8zs912OE&t=1048s|access-date=August 3, 2020|website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The term briefly became an [[internet meme]] and now returns thousands of Google search results.
* In the videogame [[NetHack]], "''HAPAX LEGOMENON''" is one of the possible randomized texts of a still unidentified type of magic scroll. Once read, the scroll casts its magic effect and then vanishes ("a thing said once") but possibly becoming henceforth identified (e.g. scroll of enchant armor, scroll of teleportation, etc.) for that playthrough.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Scroll_origins|title=Scroll origins - NetHack Wiki|access-date=2021-02-01|archive-date=2021-02-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208130626/https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/Scroll_origins|url-status=live}}</ref>

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Googlewhack}}
* {{annotated link|Nonce word}}
* {{annotated link|Protologism}}
* [[Word list]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|hapax legomenon}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110713091316/http://www.javaforge.com/project/4269 Open source Java software for text analysis and calculating hapax ratio (JHapax)] ([https://archive.today/20130103125553/http://www.javaforge.com/project/4269 archive])

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hapax Legomenon}}
[[Category:Corpus linguistics]]
[[Category:1 (number)]]
[[Category:Words]]