Bíltris & Cindapsos (dois hapax helénicos em um passo obscuro de Filinto Elísio)

Abstract

The author discusses a line belonging to the most famous work of an eighteenth-century Portuguese poet, Filinto Elisio. This runs balofos biltris, mazorraes syndapsos and is contained in the Carta ao Amigo Brito, a letter in defence of the vernacular. It has been a riddle to the poet’s commentators, ever since the lexicographer Cândido de Figueiredo thought that biltres (misspelt for biltris) and syndapsos (a bad spelling for scindapsos) were to be understood as a reference to low, gluttonous people. The author tries to demonstrate that this is but a latinization of the Greek words βλίτυρι (βλίτρι) and σκινδάψός, used as a scholasticism for sounds or words without any meaning at all, ‘a meaningless sound or jargon’, ‘a what d’ye call it, so-and-so’, as Liddell-Scott put it. A list of the many compounds created by Filinto — nearly all latinisms — and other remarks on the poet’s language are provided in the footnotes.