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σπα?́ν-ιος , α, ον (also ος, ον Arist.HA608b21, Thphr.Lap.3, Plb.4.16.3, etc.), of persons and things,
A.rare, scarce, scanty, Hdt.2.67, 5.29, etc.; ς. θήρευμα . . λαβεῖν a rare catch, E.IA1162; of persons, rarely seen, aloof, δυσπρόσιτος, ἔσω τε κλῄθρων σπάνιος ib.345 (troch.); “ς. σεαυτὸν παρέχειν” Pl.Euthphr.3d, cf. Plu.Crass.7; τῷ ὕδατι ς. χρώμενοι having a scanty supply of water, Th.7.4; in an Adv.sense, σπάνιος ἐπιφοιτᾷ he seldom visits, Hdt.2.73; so τοὺς σπανίους ἰδεῖν στρατηγούς seldom seen, X.Cyr.7.5.46, cf. Pl.Lg.953c; “σπάνιοι περιπεπλεύκασι” Str.15.1.4; σπάνιόν ἐστι, c. inf., it is seldom that . ., X.Cyr.1.3.3, Isoc.10.13; opp. ῥᾴδιον, Archyt.3; σπάνιον εἴ τις . . it is rare for one to . ., Str.7.3.4: τὸ ς. Aeschin.3.180, Arist.Mete.372a23; “ὁ ταὧς διὰ τὸ ς. θαυμάζεται” Eub.114.
II. Comp. “σπανιώτερος” Hdt.8.25, Th. 1.33, etc.: Sup. “-ώτατος” Id.7.68, Lyr.Adesp.138.1, Pl.Cra.389a, etc.
III. Adv. -ίως seldom, X.Ages.9.1, Arist.HA488b6, Plb.2.15.6 (so “σπάνιον” Str.3.5.1, Plu.Cic.8, etc., but σπανίᾳ is Adj. in Pl. Phdr.256c, and σπάνιον in Arist.Mete.372a14): Comp. “-ιώτερον” Th.1.23; “-ιαίτερον” Thphr.HP3.7.5 codd.—Rare in Poets, as Ion Eleg. 3.4.
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

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hide References (26 total)
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries from this page (26):
    • Aeschines, Against Ctesiphon, 180
    • Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, 1162
    • Euripides, Iphigeneia in Aulis, 345
    • Herodotus, Histories, 2.73
    • Herodotus, Histories, 2.67
    • Herodotus, Histories, 5.29
    • Herodotus, Histories, 8.25
    • Isocrates, Helen, 13
    • Plato, Laws, 953c
    • Plato, Euthyphro, 3d
    • Plato, Cratylus, 389a
    • Plato, Phaedrus, 256c
    • Strabo, Geography, 15.1.4
    • Strabo, Geography, 3.5.1
    • Strabo, Geography, 7.3.4
    • Thucydides, Histories, 7.4
    • Thucydides, Histories, 7.68
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.23
    • Thucydides, Histories, 1.33
    • Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 7.5.46
    • Xenophon, Cyropaedia, 1.3.3
    • Xenophon, Agesilaus, 9.1
    • Polybius, Histories, 2.15.6
    • Polybius, Histories, 4.16.3
    • Plutarch, Cicero, 8
    • Plutarch, Crassus, 7
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