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Rh words are rarely employed by him. It is hardly fair to regard this last group of words as of very great authority in determining Menander's relation to the Koine, if only for the reason that Aristophanes is even more liable to censure than Menander if they are barred out as bad Greek. They are therefore inserted in this list merely to complete the group of his words not found in the authors of our canon.

For convenience, the words discussed in this chapter are divided into several classes, according to the types which they represent. The classification is not exhaustive, but is believed to include all types which are significant. The groups considered are diminutives, variations from the Attic norm in accent and gender, words having the prefixes -privative and, those with the suffixes , , , (verbal adjectives in ), and , and verbs (and occasionally other words) which have two or more prepositions prefixed.

Diminutives.

Like any other comic poet, Menander made frequent use of diminutives. In this he simply reflects the speech of everyday life, for the Greeks, like the other nations of southern Europe, were very partial to this form. Menander has 21 diminutives which do not appear in the classical authors: namely = a piece of jewelry,  (Plato),  = the yolk of an egg,. Among these words, the following appear before Menander:. But in this sense is used by Philippides; also ;  in this sense by Diphilus; and  with a different meaning by Aristophanes and Xenophon. The rest seem to have been introduced into literature by Menander. Nearly all are uncommon in all periods.

Variations in accent and gender.

It is not strictly within the scope of our work to discuss