Where'd you get the picture, noete the beard (he looks exactly like his father)
It could be a Hebrew ordering of the words: noun then adjective
I was going to suggest what Raz said: the "machas" element first, followed by the "biaios" element. That's likely what Filosseno meant by "inversion."
I first came across the Greek word "bia" in the course of translating Shadal's comment on the phrase "bi adoni" in Gen. 43:20. Although Shadal does not refer to it himself, he does cite Rashi's reference to the phrase "biya biya," which Jastrow translates as "Woe, woe!" and derives from "bia," meaning "violence" or "wrong." I had to chuckle, because a certain female to whom I am quite close happens to be named Bia. Her mother thought the name was her own invention.
I can't believe that this photo of poor Filosseno is the first one I've ever seen. Shekoyach for unearthing it.
like scarii for roman hating knife wielders ?
Like you, I don't know Greek. But why assume that because you didn't find a given word in the dictionaries, it isn't a word? Once on a lark, I searched the U of Chicago library catalogue for books with "comprehensive dictionary" in the title. (Yes, I know, (a) I need to get a life and (b) I have a strange idea of larkery [or is it larkage?].) Got a lot of hits. In almost all cases, we can assume that "comprehensive dictionary" was itself an error.
As I said, I don't know Greek, but it appears, based on the etymologies of many English words, that the language lends itself to compound words in a Germanesque sort of way. If that's the case, can we assume that all compounds appear in dictionaries?
>But why assume that because you didn't find a given word in the dictionaries, it isn't a word?
I don't and I didn't, although I wrote that sentence out really badly. I know I didn't consult enough dictionaries, and I also know that the place to look is Greek literature, not only lexicons. I really had meant to say simply that I didn't find the word, but I was able to see that it is composed of two words.
Maccabee is also a Hebrew word which is used in the Hebrew Bible for a hammer (although patish would be used in modern Hebrew). That is why at Hanukkah Jews in Israel walk around hitting each other over the head with huge inflatable hammers :-)
Maccabee is not a Hebrew word for hammer. One theory about the origin of the word is that it derives from the Hebrew root h-k-h, which means to strike, as in strike with a hammer. In fact, a Mishnaic Hebrew term is "makeh be-patish," which means literally "strike with a hammer."
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