Ancient Greek

Noun

ψῑλότης • ‎(psīlótēs) f ‎(genitive ψῑλότητος); third declension

1. bareness
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Hippocrates to this entry?)
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Plutarch to this entry?)
   1. baldness
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Plutarch to this entry?)
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Artemidorus to this entry?)
   2. (of a woman’s body) smoothness
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Plutarch to this entry?)
      • (Can we find and add a quotation of Aristotle to this entry?)
2. tenuity
   • (Can we find and add a quotation of Aristotle to this entry?)
   • late 1st C. BC, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Περὶ Συνθέσεως Ὀνομάτων in The Critical Essays II (LCL 466, 1985), ch. xiv, ¶ 6 (p. 102, ll. 13–15):

     μία μὲν αὕτη συζυγία τριῶν γραμμάτων ἀφώνων ὁμοίῳ σχήματι λεγομένων, ψιλότητι δὲ καὶ δασύτητι διαφερόντων.

     This is one group of voiceless letters, all three letters being pronounced with a similar configuration ⟨of the mouth⟩, but differing in smoothness and roughness. ― translation from: Stephen Usher, op. cit. LCL 466 (1985), ch. xiv, ¶ 6, p. 103, ll. 13–16

   1. psile
      • 146–117 BC, Polybius (aut.), K.W. Dindorf and T. Büttner-Wobst (eds.), Ἱστορίαι III (1893), bk X, ch. xlvii, §§ 9–10 (p. 122, ll. 13–19):

        διόπερ ὅταν ἀνεπιστάτως θεωρῇ τὸ παιδάριον ὑπὸ τὴν ἀναπνοὴν ἑπτὰ καὶ πέντε στίχους συνεῖρον, οὐκ ἂν εὐχερῶς δύναιτο πιστεῦσαι διότι πρότερον οὗτος οὐκ ἀνέγνωκε τὸ βυβλίον· εἰ δὲ καὶ τὴν ὑπόκρισιν καὶ τὰς διαιρέσεις, ἔτι δὲ δασύτητας καὶ ψιλότητας δύναιτο συσσῴζειν, οὐδὲ τελέως.

        Therefore when he sees the boy, without a pause for thought, reading off seven or five lines at a breath, he will not easily be induced to believe that he has not read the book before; and certainly not, if he is able also to observe the appropriate enunciation, the proper separations of the words, and the correct use of the rough and smooth breathings. ― translation from: E.S. Shuckburgh, The Histories of Polybius (1889), bk X, ch. xlvii

Inflection

Antonyms

• ([of a woman’s body] smoothness): δασύτης ‎(dasútēs), τραχύτης ‎(trakhútēs)
• (tenuity): δασύτης ‎(dasútēs)

References

• ψῑλότης in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• ψιλότης in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• «ψιλότης» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette