Hesychius of Alexandria (redirected from Hesychios of Alexandra)

Hesychius of Alexandria (hēsĭk`ēəs), fl. 5th cent.?, Alexandrian grammarian. Hesychius is known as the compiler of an invaluable lexicon, a glossary of unusual words and expressions occurring in Greek writings. The material is drawn from special languages (e.g., medical), from older poets, and from various dialects and languages. It is the source of virtually all the material now available on certain vanished languages, such as ancient Macedonian.

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Hesychius of Alexandria

(flourished 5th century AD) Greek scholar and linguist. He compiled the Alphabetical Collection of All Words, the most complete Greek lexicon known from antiquity. Though preserved only in a 15th-century abridgment by a Venetian editor, it is valued as a basic authority for the dialects and vocabularies of ancient inscriptions and poetry as well as the sacred writings of the Greek Church Fathers (see patristic literature).