Leuchogentinus < *λευκοκέντινος

In his re-edition of P.Bas. I 1B-C Olof Tjäder saw in the hapax compound adjective leuchogentinus (l. 4) a vernacular spelling of the Greek loanword *leucoianthinus (λευκοιάνθινος), “white and violet”, exhibiting some phonetic changes well known in late Latin. The present article proposes a different interpretation of the second element of this compound, which is to be traced back to a Greek adjective of sporadic papyrological attestation and perhaps still alive in speech.