Of these words, ἀσθενικός, ταρακτικός, and τοπαστικός appear first in Menander.
-τος.
Verbal adjectives in -τος were included in this investigation because they appear to be very common in the pages of Menander, rather than because they are frequent in the Koine.[1] The statistics here collected bear out in general the statement of Jannaris, to the effect that it became far more popular since Graeco-Roman times; except that perhaps their popularity began slightly earlier than he asserts. The fact that they were so late in coming into favor seems to show that it is a mere personal pecularity in Menander. The table follows:
| Author | No. of different words in -τος |
No. of pages |
Words in -τος in 113 pp. |
| Menander | |||
| a. In Körte's Menandrea | 29 | 60 | |
| b. In all fragments | 69 | 113 | 69 |
| Aristophanes | 164 | 537 | 64 |
| Thucydides | 129 | 640 | 50 |
| Plato | 333 | 2350 | 29 |
| Demosthenes | 120 | 965 | 40 |
| Polybius | 263 | 1552 | 34 |
| Plutarch | 869 | 5177 | 110 |
The following 13 verbal adjectives in -τος are not found in Attic writers: ἀπαρηγόρητος, ἀσυλλόγιστος, ἀχόρταστος, δυσδιάθετος, δυσνουθέτητος, δυσπαρακολούθητος, δύσφευκτος, ἔγχυτος, εὐλοιδόρητος, (καταπλαστόν, κατάστικτον in these meanings), μελίπηκτον, τρίπρατος. Of these only ἀπαρηγόρητος, ἀσυλλόγιστος, ἔγχυτος, and μελίπηκτον are used before Menander.
-ίζω.
The formation of verbs in -ίζω seems to have been very popular in the every day language of Athens, from the testimony of comedy.[2] Probably for this reason these verbs are very frequent in the later speech.[3] Menander's use of them may be seen from the following table:
- ↑ See Jannaris, Hist. Gr. Gram. p. 297 § 1052; Mayser, l. c., p. 455. Cf. Blass, NT Gram.2 p. 38: "Endlich ist das Adj. verb. so gut wie ausgegangen, mit Ausn. der zu Adjekt. erstarrten Formen wie δυνατός."
- ↑ Helbing, Gram. d. Septuaginta, p. 125.
- ↑ Mayser, l. c., p. 466; Winer-Schmiedel, l. c. I8 § 3.2e; Thumb, Hdb. d. neugr. Gram. p. 79; Jannaris, l. c., p. 222 § 868.
