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[375] βαμβαίνων, either staggering from “βα-ν” (“βαίνω”), like “παμφαίνω” from “φαν”: or stammering, uttering inarticulate sounds, an onomatopoetic word like “βάρβαρος”, balbus. Both interpretations were recognized in antiquity, and there is no ground but the taste of the individual for deciding between them. In late Greek the word is used to mean stammering only; e.g. Id. 4. 9 “βαμβαίνει μευ γλῶσσα. ἄραβος .. <*>δόντων” is parenthetical.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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