Gli aggettivi in –πετης: senso accento e teorie bizantine nei vocabolari moderni

The paper discusses compound adjectives ending in –πετης. The adjectives may derive from πίπτω, πετάννυμι or πέτομαι. The paper shows that the accentuation prescribed in modern dictionaries and editions follows a simplistic, but inaccurate, Byzantine rule, which prescribed that adjectives deriving from πέτομαι should be accented as paroxytone (-πέτης). In fact, many adjectives in -πετής, -πετές derive from πέτομαι. Several entries in Greek dictionaries, and the interpretation of many passages of Greek texts must be corrected accordingly.