| hapax legomenon |
| Definition: A word or phrase of which: (1) there is only one recorded instance in a whole literature or (2) there is only one recorded instance in an author's complete works. Note: If a word is used twice it is called a dis legomenon; if three times, a tris legomenon, if four times, a tetrakis legomenon. |
| Example:
(1) The word flother, a synonym for snowflake, is a hapax legomenon in the first sense of the word: there is only one recorded instance in pre-1900 written English (from a circa 1275 manuscript). (2)The word honorificabilitudinitatibus (from Act 5, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost) is one in the second sense of the word: it is only found once in the complete works of Shakespeare. |
| Etymology: In Greek it literally means "(thing) said once." |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The word's first citation is from 1654: "'Tis hapax legomenon read only here: and hence this variety of interpretations." (John Trapp, Commentary on the 12 Minor Prophets , p. 605) |