ἅπτω:; 1 aor. ptep. ἅψας ; (cf. Lat. apto, Germ. heften) ; [fr. Hom. down]; 1. prop. to fasten to, make adhere to; hence, spec. to fasten fire to a thing, to kindle, set on Jire, (often so in Attic) : λύχνον, Lk. viii. 16 ; xi. 33; xv. 8, (Arstph. nub. 57; Theophr. char. 20 (18); Joseph. antt. 4, 3,4); mip, Lk. xxii. 55 [T Tr txt. WH wepe αψάντων]; πυράν, Acts xxviili.2 LT Tr WH. 2. Mid., [pres. ἅπτομαι]; impf. ἡπτόμην [Mk. vi. 56 RG Tr mrg.]; 1 aor. ἡψάμην; in Sept. generally for 323, 37393; prop. to fasten one’s self to, adhere to, cling to, (Hom. Il. 8, 67); a. to touch, foll. by the obj. in gen. [W. § 80, 8 ο.; B.167 (146); ef. Donaldson p. 483]: Mt. viii. 3; Mk. iii. 10; vii. 33; viii. 22, etc.; Lk. xviii. 15; xxii. 51, very often in Mt., Mk. and Lk. In Jn. xx. 17, μή μου ἅπτου is to be explained thus: Do not handle me to see whether Tam still clothed with a body ; there is no need of such an examination, “for not yet” etc.; cf. Baume:- Crusius and Meyer ad loc. [as given by Hackett in Bib. Sacer. for 1868, p. 779 sq., or B. D. Am. ed. p. 1813 54.1. b. yuvarkos, of carnal intercourse with a woman, or cohabitation, 1 Co. vii. 1, like the Lat. tangere, Hor. sat. 1, 2,54; Ter. Heaut. 4, 4,15, and the Hebr. 33, Gen. xx. 6; Prov. vi. 29, (Plat. de legge. viii. 840 a.; Plut. Alex. Magn. ο. 21). c. with allusion to the levitical precept ἀκαθάρτου μὴ ἅπτεσθε, have no intercourse with the Gentiles, no fellowship in their heathenish practices, 2 Co. vi. 17 (fr. Is. lii. 11) ; and in the Jewish sense, μὴ ἅψῃ Col. 11. 21 (the things not to be touched appear to be both women and certain kinds of food, so that celibacy and abstinence from various kinds of food and drink are recommended ; cf. De Wette ad loc. [but also Meyer and Bp. Lehtft. ; on the distinction between the stronger term ἅπτεσθαι (to handle?) and the more delicate θιγεῖν (to touch?) cf. the two commentators just named and Trench § xvii. In classic Grk. also ἅπτεσθαι is the stronger term, denoting often to lay hold of, hold fast, appropriate ; in its carnal reference differing from θιγγάνειν by suggesting unlawfulness. θιγγάνειν is used of touching by the hand as a means of knowledge, handling for a purpose; ψηλαφᾶν signifies to feel around with the fingers or hands, esp. in searching for something, often to grope, fumble, ef. ψηλαφίνδα blindman’s buff. Schmidt ch. 10.]). ἅ. to touch i.e. assail: τινός, any one, 1 Jn. v. 18, (1 Chr. xvi. 22, ete.). [Comp. : ἀν-, καθ-, περιτάπτω.]

ἅπτω haptō 39x

pr. to bring in contact, fit, fasten; to light, kindle, Mk. 4:21; Lk. 8:16; to touch, Mt. 8:3; to meddle, venture to partake, Col. 2:21; to have intercourse with, to know carnally, 1 Cor. 7:1; by impl. to harm, 1 Jn. 5:18

AN accurate synonymous distinction will sometimes cause us at once to reject as untenable some interpretation of Scripture, which might, but for this, have won a certain amount of allowance. Thus, many interpreters have explained Heb. xii. 18: “ For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched” (ψηλαφωμένῳ ὄρει), by Ps. civ. 82: “ He towcheth the hills, and they smoke; ”’ and call in aid the fact that, at the giving of the Law, God came down upon mount Sinai, which ‘“‘ was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it” (Exod. xix. 18). But decisively forbidding this is the fact that ψηλαφάω never expresses the so handling of an object as to exercise a moulding, modifying influence upon it, but at most a feeling of its surface (Luke xxiv. 39: 1 John i. 1); this, it may be, with the intention of learning its composition (Gen. xxvii. 12, 21, 22); while not seldom it signifies no more than a feeling for or after an object, without any actual coming in contact with it at all. It continually expresses a groping in the dark (Job v. 14); or of the blind (Isai. lix. 10; Gen. xxvii. 12 ; Deut. xxviii. 29; Judg. xvi. 26); tropically sometimes (Acts xvii. 27) ; compare Plato (Phedo, 99 δ), ψηλαφῶντες ὥσπερ ἐν σκότει; Aristophanes, Pax, 691; Eccles. 81δ, and Philo, Quis Rer. Dw. Her. 51. Nor does the ψηλαφώμενον ὄρος, to which reference was just made, the ‘mons palpabilis,’ or ‘ tractabilis,’ as 56 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT §xvit the Vulgate has it, mean anything else: ‘Ye are not come,’ the writer to the Hebrews would say, ‘to any material mountain, like Sinai, capable of being touched and handled ; not, in this sense, to the mountain that might be felt, but to the heavenly Jerusalem, to a νοητόν, not to an αἰσθητόν, ὄρος. Thus Knapp (Script. Var. Argum. p. 264: ‘ Videlicet τὸ ψηλαφώμενον idem est, quod αἰσθητόν, vel quidquid sensu percipitur aut investigatur quovis modo; plane ut Tacitus (Ann. 111. 12) oculus contrectare dixit, nec dissimili ratione Cicero (Tusc. 111. 15) mente contrectare. Et Sina quidem mons ideo αἰσθητός appellatur, quia Szonc opponitur, quo in monte, que sub sensus cadunt, non spectantur; sed ea tantum, que mente atque animo percipi possunt, νοητά, πνευματικά, ἠθικά. Apposite ad ἢ. 1. Chrysostomus (Hom. 82 in Hp. ad Hebr.): πάντα τοίνυν τότε αἰσθητά, καὶ ὄψεις, καὶ φωναί" πάντα νοητὰ καὶ ἀόρατα viv.’ The so handling of any object as to exert a modifying influence upon it, the French ‘ manier,’ as distinguished from ‘toucher,’ the German ‘ betasten,’ as distinguished from ‘bertthren,’ would be either dmrecOar' or θιγγάνειν. These words may be sometimes exchanged the one for the other, as at Exod. xix. 12 they are; and compare Aristotle, De Gen. et Corrupt. 1. 8, quoted by Lightfoot with other passages at Coloss. ii. 21 ; but in the main the first is stronger than the second; ἅπτεσθαι (=‘ contrectare’) than θιγγάνειν (Ps. civ. 15; 1 John v. 18), as appears plainly in a passage of Xenophon (Cyr. i. 8. 5), where the child Cyrus, rebuking his grandfather’s delicacies, says : ὅτι σε ὁρῶ, ὅταν μὲν τοῦ ἄρτου ἅψῃ, εἰς οὐδὲν τὴν χεῖρα ἀποψώμενον, ὅταν δὲ τούτων τινὸς θίγῃς, εὐθὺς ἀποκαθαίρῃ τὴν χεῖρα εἰς τὰ χειρόμακτρα, ὡς πάνυ ἀχθόμενος. It is, indeed, so much stronger that it can be used, which certainly θιγγάνειν could not, of the statuary’s shaping of his materials (Plutarch, Phil. cum Prin. 1); the self-conscious effort, which is sometimes present to this, being always absent from the other. Our Version, then, has exactly 1 In the passage alluded to already, Ps. civ. 32, the words of the Septuagint are, 6 ἁπτόμ εν ο 5 τῶν ὀρέων καὶ καπνίζονται. §xvut SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 57 reversed the true order of the words, when, at Col. ii. yA a he translates μὴ ἅψῃ, μηδὲ γεύσῃ, μηδὲ θίγῃς, ““ Touch not, taste not, handle ποῖ. The first and last prohibitions should change places, and the passage read, “ Handle not, taste not, touch not:’’ just as in the Latin Versions ‘ tangere,’ which now stands for ἅπτεσθαι, and ‘attaminare,’ or ‘contrectare,’ for θιγεῖν, should be transposed. How much more vividly will then come out the ever ascending scale of superstitious prohibition among the false teachers at Colosse. To abstain from ‘handling’ is not sufficient; they forbid to ‘taste,’ and, lastly, even to ‘ touch,’ those things from which, according to their notions, uncleanness might be contracted. Beza has noted this well: ‘ Verbum θιγεῖν a verbo ἅπτεσθαι sic est distinguendum, ut decrescente semper oratione intelligatur crescere superstitio.’ The verb ψαύειν does not once occur in the N. T., nor in the Septuagint. There is, I observe in conclusion, a very careful study on this group of words in Schmidt’s Synonymik, vol. i., pp. 224-243. ὃ xviii. παλιγγενεσία, ἀνακαίνωσις. Παλιγγενεσία is one among the many words which the Gospel found, and, so to speak, glorified; enlarged the borders of its meaning ; lifted it up into a higher sphere; made it the expression of far deeper thoughts, of far mightier truths, than any of which it had been the vehicle before. It was, indeed, already in use; but as the Christian new-birth was not till after Christ’s birth ; as men were not new-born, till Christ was born (John i. 12) ; as their regeneration did not precede, but only followed his generation ; so the word could not be used in this its highest, most mysterious sense, till that great mystery of the birth of the Son of God into our world had actually found place. And yet it is exceedingly interesting to trace these its subordinate, and, as they proved, preparatory uses. There are passages (as, for instance, in Lucian, Musce Encom. 7) in which -it means revivification, and nothing more. In the Pythagorean doctrine of the trans58 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT § xvii migration of souls, their reappearance in new bodies was called their παλιγγενεσία (Plutarch, De Hsu Car.i. 7; uu. 6; De Isid. et Osir. 85 : ᾽Οσίριδος αἱ ἀναβιώσεις Kat παλιγγενεσίαι : De Hi ap. Delph. 9: ἀποβιώσεις καὶ παλιγγενεσίαι : De Def. Orac. 51, μεταβολαὶ καὶ παλιγγενεσίαι). For the Stoics the word set forth the periodic renovation of the earth, when, budding and blossoming in the spring-time, it woke up from its winter sleep, and, so to speak, revived from its winter death : which revival therefore Marcus Antoninus calls (ii. 1) τὴν περιοδικὴν παλιγγενεσίαν τῶν ὅλων. Philo also constantly sets forth by aid of παλιγγενεσία the phcenix-like resurrection of the material world out of fire, which the Stoies taught (De Incorr. Mun. 17, 21; De Mun. 15) ; while in another place, of Noah and those in the Ark with him, he says (De Vit. Mos. 11. 12: παλιγγενεσίας ἐγένοντο ἡγεμόνες, καὶ δευτέρας ἀρχηγέται περιόδου. Basil the Great (Hexaém. Hom. 8) notes some heretics, who, bringing old heathen speculations into the Christian Church, ἀπείρους φθορὰς κόσμου καὶ παλιγγενεσίας εἰσάγουσιν. Cicero (Ad Attic. vi. 6) calls his restoration to his dignities and honours, after his return from exile, ‘ hance παλιγγενεσίαν nostram,’ with which compare Philo, Leg. ad Cat. 41. Josephus (Anit. xi. 3. 9) characterizes the restoration of the Jewish nation after the Captivity, as τὴν ἀνάκτησιν καὶ παλιγγενεσίαν τῆς πατρίδος (Ξε ζωοποίησιν, Εἰ στα, ix. 8, 9). And, to cite one passage more, Olympiodorus, a later Platonist, styles recollection or reminiscence, which must be carefully distinguished from memory,! the παλιγγενεσία of knowledge (Journal des 1 The very purpose of the passage in Olympiodorus is to bring out the old Aristotelian and Platonic distinction between ‘memory’ (μνήμη, Gedichtniss) and ‘ recollection’ or ‘ reminiscence’ (ἀνάμνησις, Heb. x. 3 ; Wiedererinnerung), the first being instinctive, and common to beasts with men, the second being the reviving of faded impressions by a distinct act of the will, the reflux, at the bidding of the mind, of knowledge which has once ebbed (Plato, Philebus, 34 ὃ; Legg. v. 732 ὃ: ἀνάμνησις δ᾽ ἐστὶν ἐπιῤῥοὴ φρονήσεως ἀπολιπούσης : cf. Philo, Cong. Erud. Grat. 8), and as such proper only to man (Aristotle, De Hist. Anim. i. 1.15; Brandis, Aristoteles, pp. 1148-53). It will at once be seen that of this latter only Olympiodorus could say, that it is maAryyevecia τῆς γνώσεως. ἐν SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT τὸ Savans, 1884, p. 488); παλιγγενεσία τῆς γνώσεώς ἐστιν ἡ ἀνάμνησις. : Παλιγγενεσία, which has thus in heathen and Jewish Greek the meaning of a recovery, a restoration, a revival, yet never reaches, or even approaches, there the depth of meaning which it has acquired in Christian language. The word does “not once occur in the O. T. (but πάλιν γίνεσθαι at Job xiv. 14 ; cf. Josephus, Con. Apion. 11. 30), and only twice in the New (Matt. xix. 28; Tit. iii. 5); but on these two occasions (as is most remarkable), with meanings apparently different. In our Lord’s own words there is evident reference to the newbirth of the whole creation, the ἀποκατάστασις πάντων (Acts ili, 21), which shall be when the Son of Man hereafter comes in his glory; while ‘‘ the washing of regeneration ” whereof St. Paul speaks has to do with that new-birth, not of the whole travailing creation, but of the single soul, which is now evermore finding place. Is then παλιγγενεσία used in two different senses, with no common bond binding the diverse uses of it together ? By no means: all laws of language are violated by any such supposition. The fact is, rather, that the word by our Lord is used in a wider, by his Apostle in a narrower, meaning. They are two circles of meaning, one comprehending more than the other, but their centre is the same. The παλιγγενεσία which Scripture proclaims begins with the μικρόκοσμος of single souls ; but it does not end with this, nor cease its effectual working till it has embraced the whole μακρόκοσμος of the universe. The primary seat of the παλιγγενεσία is the soul of man; it is of this that St. Paul speaks ; but, having established its centre there, it extends in ever-widening circles; and, first, to his body; the day of resurrection being the day of παλιγγενεσία for it. It follows that those Fathers had a certain, though only a partial, right, who at Matt. xix. 28 made παλιγγενεσία equivalent to ἀνάστασις, and themselves continually used the words as synonymous (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. v. 1. 58; iii. 28; Kuthymius: παλιγγενεσίαν λέγει τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν ὡς παλινζωΐαν ; see Suicer, 5. v.). Doubtless our Lord there implies, or pre60 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT §xvur supposes, the resurrection, but He also includes much more. Beyond the day of resurrection, or, it may be, contemporaneous with it, a day will come when all nature shall put off its soiled work-day garments, and clothe itself in its holy-day attire, ‘‘ the time of restitution of all things’”’ (Acts iii. 21) ; of what Plutarch, reaching out after this glorious truth, calls the μετακόσμησις (De Fac. im Orb. Lun. 18); of “the new heaven and the new earth’’ (Rev. xxi. 1; Isai. xv. 17; Ixvi. 22; 2 Pet. 111. 13); a day by St. Paul regarded as one in the labour-pangs of which all creation is groaning and travailing until now (Rom. viii. 21—-23).! Man is the present subject of the παλιγγενεσία, and of the wondrous change which it implies; but in that day it will have included within its limits that whole world of which man is the central figure: and here is the reconciliation of the two passages, in one of which it is contemplated as pertaining to the single soul, in the other to the whole redeemed creation. These refer both to the same event, but at different epochs and stages of its development. ‘Palingenesia,’ as Delitzsch says concisely and well (Apologetik, p. 213), ‘ist ein kurzer Ausdruck fir die Wiedergeburt oder Verklairung der menschlichen Leiblichkeit und der aussermenschlichen Gesammtnatur.’ Compare Engelhardt, Weltverklarung und Welterneuerung in the Zeitschrift fiir Luther. Theol. 1871, p. 48, sqq. ᾿Αναγέννησις, ἃ word common enough with the Greek Fathers (see Suicer, 5. v.), nowhere occurs in the N. T., although the verb avayevvdw twice (1 Pet. i. 3, 23). Did we 1 Parallels from heathen writers are very often deceptive, none are more likely to prove so than those which Seneca offers; on which see Bishop Lightfoot in an Appendix to his Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians, p. 268, sqq.; and Aubertin, Sur les Rapports supposés entre Sénéque et S. Paul. And yet, with the fullest admission of this, the words which follow must be acknowledged as remarkable (Ep. 102) : ‘Quemadmodum novem mensibus nos tenet maternus uterus, et preparat non sibi sed illi loco in quem videmur emitti, jam idonei spiritum trahere, et in aperto durare, sic per hoc spatium quod ab infantia patet in senectutem, in alium nature sumimur partum, alia origo expectat, alius rerum status.’ §xvit SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 61 meet it there, it would constitute a closer synonym to παλιγγενεσία than dvaxaivwors can do; ἀναγέννησις ( = regeneratio) bringing out the active operation of Him who is the author of the new-birth ; while παλιγγενεσία (= renascentia) is that same new-birth itself. But not urging this further, we have now to speak of ἀνακαίνωσις (= renovatio), of the relations in which it stands to παλιγγενεσία, and the exact limits to the meaning of-each. And first it is worth observing that while the word παλιγyeveoia is drawn from the realm of nature, ἀνακαίνωσις is derived from that of art. A word peculiar to the Greek of the N. T., it occurs there only twice—once in connexion with παλιγγενεσία (Tit. iii. 5), and again at Rom. xii. 2; but we have the verb dvaxawow, which also is exclusively a N. T. form, at 2 Cor. iv. 16; Col. 111. 10; and the more classical dvaxawilw, Heb. vi. 6, from which the nouns, frequent in the Greek Fathers, ἀνακαινισμός and dvaxaivors,! are more immediately drawn ; we have also avavedw at Ephes. iv. 23; all in similar uses. More on these words will be found in § lx. Our Collect for Christmas day expresses excellently well the relation in which the παλιγγενεσία and the ἀνακαίνωσις stand to each other; we there pray, ‘ that we being regenerate,’ in other words, having been already made the subjects of the παλιγγενεσία, ‘may daily be renewed by the Holy Spirit,’ may continually know the ἀνακαίνωσις Πνεύματος “Ayiov. In this Collect, uttering, as do so many, profound theological truth in forms at once the simplest and the most accurate, the newbirth is contemplated as already past, as having found place once for all, while the ‘renewal’ or ‘ renovation ’ is daily proceeding—being as it is that gradual restoration of the Divine image, which is ever going forward in him who, through the new-birth, has come under the transforming ” ' Thus Gregory of Nazianzus (Orat. 10): ἀναμένω τοῦ οὐρανοῦ μετασχηματισμόν, τῆς γῆς μεταποίησιν, Thy τῶν στοιχείων ἐλευθερίαν, τοῦ κόσμου παντὸς ἀνακαίνισιν. 2 Μεταμορφοῦσθε τῇ ἀνακαινώσει τοῦ νοός (Rom. ΧΙ]. 2). The striking words of Seneca (Hp. 6): ‘Intelligo me emendari non tantum, sed 62 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT § xvii powers of the world to come. It is called ‘ the renewal of the Holy Ghost,’ inasmuch as He is the efficient cause, by whom alone this putting on of the new man, and putting off the old, is brought about. These two then are bound by closest ties to one another ; the second the following up, the consequence, the consummation of the first. The παλιγγενεσία is that free act of God’s mercy and power, whereby He causes the sinner to pass out of the kingdom of darkness into that of light, out of death into life; it is the ἄνωθεν γεννηθῆναι of John iii. 8; the γεννηθῆναι ἐκ Θεοῦ of 1 John v. 4; the θεογενεσία of Dionysius the Areopagite and other Greek theologians ; the ἀναγεννηθῆναι ἐκ σπορᾶς ἀφθάρτου of 1 Pet. 1. 23; in it that glorious word begins to be fulfilled, ἰδοὺ καινὰ ποιῶ τὰ πάντα (Rev. xxi. 5). In it,—not in the preparations for it, but in the act itself,— the subject of it is passive, even as the child has nothing to do with its own birth. With the dvaxaivwors it is otherwise. This is the gradual conforming of the man more and more to that new spiritual world into which he has been introduced, and in which he now lives and moves; the restoration of the Divine image; and in all this, so far from being passive, he must be a fellow-worker with God. That was ‘regeneratio,’ this is ‘renovatio;’ which two must not be separated, but as little may be confounded, as Gerhard (Loc. Theoll. xxi. 7. 113) has well declared: ‘ Renovatio, licet a regeneratione proprie et specialiter accepta distinguatur, individuo tamen et perpetuo nexu cum ea est conjuncta.’ What infinite perplexities, conflicts, scandals, obscurations of God’s truth on this side and on that, have arisen now from the confusion, and now from the separating, of these two! transfigurari,’ are far too big to express any benefits which he could have indeed gotten from his books and schools of philosophy; they reach out after blessings to be obtained, not in the schools of men, but only in the Church of the living God. $xix SYWONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 63 ὃ xix. αἰσχύνη, αἰδώς, ἐντροπή.

ἅπτομαι. The sense of eagerness comes out well in the royal letter to Attis, priest of Pessinus, OG/S 315°° (B.c. 164-3) μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα ἐν ἄλλαις καὶ ἄλλαις ἡμέραις ἀεὶ διασκοποῦσιν (for -otvtwy) ἥπτετο μᾶλλον ἡμῶν, “urged his view upon us.” In Sy// 8495 (Delphi, B.c. 177-6, in dialect) εἰ δέ τίς κα ἅπτηται Σωσίχας ἐπὶ καταδουλισμῶι, it means ‘lay hold of, appropriate.” The active sense of ‘‘kindle,” “set fire to,” is illustrated by the magical papyrus P Lond 121° (iii/A.D.) (=I. p. 101) ἅπτε δὲ λιβάνῳ, and appears thrice in a very illiterate iv/a.D. letter, P Oxy X. 12977? ἀπέστιλά σοι. . . διὰ Ἴλιτος σφυρίδιον ἕν, ἅψαι αὐτὸν κεῖται (so 7.47) “1 sent you . . by Ilis one basket for you to burn” (Edd.). The middle occurs in the recently recovered Greek Acts of the martyr Christina—PSI 27/8 (v/A.D.) εὐχαριστῶ colt ὁ] πατὴρ τοῦ Kv Iv Xv, μὴ ἐνκατα[λίπῃς pe εἰς] τὸν αἰῶν[α], ἀλλὰ ἔκίτεινον] τὴν χεῖράν σου καὶ ἅψαι τοῦ πυρὸς τούτου καὶ σ]βέσον τὸ ἐπ[αναστὰν] ἐπάνω μου, [μ]ήποται ἐπιχαρῇ Οὐρβανὸς ὁ τύραϊννος em ἐμέ]. The familiar ἅπτεσθαι of healing wrought by touch may be illustrated by Sy/Z 803% (iii/B.c.—the Asclepieum at Epidaurus) ἐδόκει αὐτᾶι . .. τὸν θεὸν &pac[BJat οὗ τᾶ[ς κοιλίας * ἐκ τούτου Tat ᾿Ανδρομάχαι (the suppliant) v[t]ds ἐξ ᾿Αρύββα ἐγίνε[τ]ο ‘The opposite sense occurs in 26. 80478 (2 έαϊεγε, perh. ii/A.D.) ἥψατο δέ μου (sc. ἡ νόσος) καὶ τῆς δεξιᾶς χιρὸς Kal τοῦ μαστοῦ. MGr has ἀνάφτω ‘‘kindle,” and the simplex in a special phrase, ἅψε σβύσε.

ἅπτω (haptō) — to touch. Included with: ἅπτω, future ἅψω: aorist ἧψα:—passive, perfect ἧμμαι, Ionic dialect ἅμμαι[Refs 5th c.BC+]: future ἅψομαι[Refs 8th c.BC+] (συν-) [Refs 2nd c.AD+] —middle, see.below (compare ἑάφθη):—fasten or bind to, used by [Refs 8th c.BC+]active, ἅψας ἀμφοτέρωθεν.. ἔντερον οἰός (of a lyre-string) [Refs 8th c.BC+]; once in middle, ἁψαμένη βρόχον.. ἀφ᾽ ὑψηλοῖο μελάθρου having fastened the noose to the beam (to hang herself), [Refs]; so later ἅψεται ἀμφὶ βρόχον.. δείρᾳ[Refs 5th c.BC+]:—active, βρόχους ἅ. κρεμαστούς[Refs 5th c.BC+]

2. join, ἅ. χορόν[Refs 4th c.BC+]; πάλην τινὶ ἅ. fasten a contest in wrestling on one, engage with one, [Refs]: —passive, ἅπτεσθαι τὴν Μεγαρέων πόλιν καὶ Κορινθίων τοῖς τείχεσιν[Refs 4th c.BC+]

II. more frequently in middle, ἅπτομαι, future ἅψομαι, aorist ἡψάμην[Refs 5th c.BC+], with perfect passive ἧμμαι[Refs 5th c.BC+]:—fasten oneself to, grasp, c.genitive, ἅψασθαι γούνων[Refs 8th c.BC+]; ἅπτεσθαί τινος, Latin manus inicere alicui, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; τῶν σφυγμῶν feel the pulse, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]: metaphorically, take hold of, cleave to, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

II. b absolutely, τῶν μὲν γὰρ πάντων βέλε᾽ ἅπτεται for the spears of all the Trojans reach their mark, [Refs 8th c.BC+]

II. c ἅ. τῆς γῆς land, [Refs 1st c.BC+]

III. metaphorically, engage in, undertake, βουλευμάτων[Refs 5th c.BC+]; πολέμου prosecute it vigorously, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; ἐπιτηδεύματος[Refs 5th c.BC+] attack, impugn the argument of another, [Refs]; τούτων ἥψατο touched on these points, handled them, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; but also, touch on, treat superficially, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

III. b absolutely, begin, set to work, ταῖς διανοίαις[Refs 5th c.BC+]

III.2. fasten upon, attack, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; of diseases, ἧπταί μου[Refs 5th c.BC+]; ὅσα ἅπτεται ἀνθρώπων all that feed on human flesh, [Refs]

III.2. b lay hands on, χρημάτων[Refs 5th c.BC+]

III.3. touch, affect, ἄλγος οὐδὲν ἅπτεται νεκροῦ[Refs 5th c.BC+]; make an impression upon, ἡμῶν[Refs 2nd c.BC+]

III.4. grasp with the senses, perceive, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; apprehend, τῆς αἰτίας[Refs 4th c.BC+]

III.5. have intercourse with a woman, [NT+5th c.BC+]

III.6. come up to, reach, overtake, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; attain, τῆς ἀληθείας[Refs 5th c.BC+]; but also with genitive, Ἡρακλέος σταλᾶν[Refs]

III.7. make use of, avail oneself of, τῆς τύχης[Refs 5th c.BC+]

III.8. Geometry texts, of bodies and surfaces, to be in contact, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; of lines or curves, meet, [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; touch, [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; pass through a point, [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; of points, lie on a line or curve,[Refs]; ἅπτεται τὸ σημεῖον θέσει δεδομένης εὐθείας the locus of the point is a given straight line, [Refs 3rd c.AD+] __B active, kindle, set on fire (i.e. by contact of fire), [Refs 5th c.BC+] (so in middle, [Refs 5th c.BC+]:—passive, to be set on fire, ὁ μοχλὸς ἐλάϊνος ἐν πυρὶ μέλλεν ἅψεσθαι[Refs 8th c.BC+]; ὡς ἅφθη τάχιστα τὸ λήιον.. ἅψατο νηοῦ as soon as the corn caught fire, it set fire to the temple, [Refs 5th c.BC+]; πυρῆς ἤδη ἁμμένης[Refs 5th c.BC+] __B.II ἅ. πῦρ kindle a fire, [Refs]:—passive, ἄνθρακες ἡμμένοι red-hot embers, [Refs 5th c.BC+] __B.III cook, [Refs 2nd c.AD+]