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). Rank-frequency plot for words in the novel. About 44% of the distinct set of words in this novel, such as "matrimonial", occur only once, and so are(red). About 17%, such as "dexterity", appear twice (so-called, 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 ( also or ;[1][2] pl. hapax legomena; sometimes abbreviated to hapax) is a word 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 sometimes incorrectly 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 transliteration of Greek ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, meaning "(something) being said (only) once".[3]

The related terms dis legomenon, tris legomenon, and tetrakis legomenon respectively ( , , ) refer to double, triple, or quadruple occurrences, but are far less commonly used.

Hapax legomena are quite common, as predicted by Zipf's law,[4] which states that the frequency of any word in a 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.[5] Thus, in the Brown Corpus of American English, about half of the 50,000 distinct words are hapax legomena within that corpus.[6]

Hapax legomenon refers to a word's appearance 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 coins it, and so on.

Significance [ edit ]

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 Mayan glyphs are hapax legomena, and Biblical (particularly Hebrew; see § Hebrew examples) hapax legomena sometimes pose problems in translation. Hapax legomena also pose challenges in natural language processing.[7]

Some scholars consider Hapax legomena useful in determining the authorship of written works. P. N. Harrison, in The Problem of the Pastoral Epistles (1921)[8] made hapax legomena popular among 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, W. P. Workman found the following numbers of hapax legomena in each Pauline Epistle: Romans 113, I Cor. 110, II Cor. 99, Gal. 34, Eph. 43 Phil. 41, Col. 38, I Thess. 23, II Thess. 11, Philemon 5, I Tim. 82, II Tim. 53, Titus 33. At first glance, the last three totals (for the Pastoral Epistles) are not out of line with the others.[9] To take account of the varying length of the epistles, Workman also calculated the average number of hapax legomena per page of the Greek text, which ranged from 3.6 to 13, as summarized in the diagram on the right.[9] 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 plays by 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.[9]

Apart from author identity, there are several other factors that can explain the number of hapax legomena in a work:[10]

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.

; 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 (although the authorship of the Pastorals is subject to debate on other grounds).[11]

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.[12]

It would not be especially difficult for a forger to construct a work with any percentage of hapax legomena desired. However, it seems unlikely that forgers much before the 20th century would have conceived such a ploy, much less thought it worth the effort.[citation needed]

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 [ edit ]

In the fields of computational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP), esp. corpus linguistics and 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.[13]

Examples [ edit ]

The following are some examples of hapax legomena in languages or corpora.

Arabic examples [ edit ]

In the Qurʾān:

Chinese and Japanese characters [ edit ]

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 kogo (孤語), literally "lonely characters", these can be considered a type of hapax legomenon.[15] For example, the Classic of Poetry (c. 1000 BC) uses the character 篪 exactly once in the verse "伯氏吹埙，仲氏吹篪", and it was only through the discovery of a description by Guo Pu (276-324 AD) that the character could be associated with a specific type of ancient flute.

English examples [ edit ]

Flother , as a synonym for snowflake, is a hapax legomenon of written English found in a manuscript entitled The XI Pains of Hell (circa 1275). [16] [17]

, as a synonym for snowflake, is a of written English found in a manuscript entitled (circa 1275). Hebenon , a poison referred to in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' only once.

, a poison referred to in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' only once. Honorificabilitudinitatibus is a hapax legomenon of Shakespeare's works.

is a of Shakespeare's works. 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."

, 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." Nortelrye , a word for "education", occurs only once in Chaucer.

, a word for "education", occurs only once in Chaucer. Sassigassity , perhaps with the meaning of "audacity", occurs only once in Dickens's short story "A Christmas Tree".

, perhaps with the meaning of "audacity", occurs only once in 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".

"sleep-weary" occurs exactly once in the Old English corpus, in the . There is debate over whether it means "weary with sleep" or "weary for sleep". Satyr, although a common word in English generally, is a hapax legomenon for Shakespeare as it occurs only once in his writings.[18]

German examples [ edit ]

Muspilli line 57: "dar nimac denne mak andremo helfan uora demo muspille" ( 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 Muspilli#Etymology for discussion).

Ancient Greek examples [ edit ]

Hebrew examples [ edit ]

The number of distinct hapax legomena in the Hebrew Bible is 1,480 (out of a total of 8,679 distinct words used).[26]:112 However, due to Hebrew roots, suffixes and prefixes, only 400 are "true" hapax legomena.[12] A full list can be seen at the Jewish Encyclopedia entry for "Hapax Legomena."[12]

Some examples include:

Akut (אקוט – fought), only appears once in the Hebrew Bible, in Psalm 95:10.

(אקוט – fought), only appears once in the Hebrew Bible, in Psalm 95:10. Atzei Gopher (עֲצֵי-גֹפֶר – 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. [27]

(עֲצֵי-גֹפֶר – 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. is simply a transliteration, although scholars tentatively suggest that the intended wood is cypress. Gvina (גבינה – cheese) is a hapax legomenon of Biblical Hebrew, found only in Job 10:10. The word has become extremely common in modern Hebrew.

(גבינה – cheese) is a of Biblical Hebrew, found only in Job 10:10. The word has become extremely common in 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."

(זכוכית) is a of Biblical Hebrew, found only in Job 28:17. The word derives from the root זכה , meaning clear/transparent and refers to glass or crystal. In Modern Hebrew, it is used for "glass." Lilith (לילית) occurs once in the Hebrew Bible, in Isaiah 34:14, which describes the desolation of Edom. It is translated several ways.

Irish example [ edit ]

chomneibi, an adjective of unknown meaning describing a lath, only appears in Triads of Ireland #169.[28]

Italian examples [ edit ]

Ramogna is mentioned only once in Italian literature, specifically in Dante's Divina Commedia ( Purgatorio XI, 25).

is mentioned only once in Italian literature, specifically in Dante's ( XI, 25). 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. [29]

appears once in the ( XXXIII, 48). The meaning is contested but usually interpreted as "darkens" or "impedes". Some manuscripts give the alternative hapax instead. Trasumanar is another hapax legomenon mentioned in the Commedia ( Paradiso I, 70, translated as "Passing beyond the human" by Mandelbaum).

is another mentioned in the ( I, 70, translated as "Passing beyond the human" by Mandelbaum). Ultrafilosofia, which means "beyond the philosophy" appears in Leopardi's Zibaldone (Zibaldone 114–115 – June, 7th 1820).

Latin examples [ edit ]

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.

, a participle of the word , which means "to fight fiercely" or "to struggle violently", appears only in line 11 of Horace's 1.9. Mactatu , singular ablative of mactatus , meaning "because of the killing". It occurs only in De rerum natura by Lucretius.

, singular ablative of , meaning "because of the killing". It occurs only in by Lucretius. Mnemosynus , presumably meaning a keepsake or aide-memoire , appears only in Poem 12 of Catullus's Carmina .

, presumably meaning a keepsake or , appears only in Poem 12 of Catullus's . Scortillum , a diminutive form meaning "little prostitute", occurs only in Poem 10 of Catullus's Carmina, line 3.

, a diminutive form meaning "little prostitute", occurs only in Poem 10 of Catullus's Carmina, line 3. Terricrepo , an adjective apparently referring to a thunderous oratory method, occurs only in Book 8 of Augustine's Confessions .

, an adjective apparently referring to a thunderous oratory method, occurs only in Book 8 of Augustine's . Romanitas , a noun signifying "Romanism" or "the Roman way" or "the Roman manner", appears only in Tertullian's de Pallio . [30] [31]

, a noun signifying "Romanism" or "the Roman way" or "the Roman manner", appears only in Tertullian's . Arepo is a proper name only found in the Sator squares. It is derived by spelling opera backwards.

Slavic examples [ edit ]

Vytol (вытол) is a hapax legomenon of the known corpus of the Medieval Russian birch bark manuscripts. The word occurs in inscription no. 600 from Novgorod, dated ca. 1220–1240, in the context "[the] vytol has been caught" (вытоло изловили). According to Andrey Zaliznyak, the word does not occur anywhere else, and its meaning is not known.[32] Various interpretations, such as a personal name or the social status of a person, have been proposed.[33]

In popular culture [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]