1 The word ὑπολάπαρος2 is often applied to ς1ύντας1ις2 or ἔντας1ις2 of the hypochondria. Galen (see Littré on Epidemics III, Case II, Vol. III, p. 34) says that it means "without bulk," or "without swelling." This is possible if the word is etymologically connected with λαπάζω. The translators are not very precise. Littré has "sans beaucoup de rénitence," "sans tumeur," "sans gonflement," "sans grand gonflement ;" Adams has "empty," "loose," "softish." In Epidemics I, Case XII, occurs the phrase φλεγμονὴ ὑπολάπαρος2 ἐκ τοῦ ἔς1ω μέρεος2, from which it seems that the prefix ὑπο- means "underneath," not "rather." "Empty underneath" seems the primary meaning, and suggests a tightness, or inflammation, with nothing hard and bulky immediately beneath the surface to cause the tightness or inflammation. Perhaps the word also suggests the tenderness often found in the hypochoudria of malaria patients.
2 I take λεπτός2 here to mean "thinner than usual, than might have been expected," a meaning it has once or twice in the Hippocratic Corpus. It might also mean "consisting of small pieoes." See on Epidemics III, Case II (first series).
Hippocrates Collected Works I. Hippocrates. W. H. S. Jones. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1868.
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