Oros of Alexandria

Oros of Alexander (Ancient Greek: Ὦρος ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, also called Orus) was a late classical/Byzantine lexicographer and grammarian active in the mid-5th century. According to the Suda he was born in Alexandria and taught in Constantinople. The Suda lists ten titles by him, but little of his work survives.^[1]

Fragments of his lexicon of Attic usages are preserved in later lexica.^[2] This work sought to counter the hyperatticist doctrine favoured by some contemporary lexicographers, who were inspired by the works of the 2nd-century grammarian Phrynichus. Oros' work was influential in the later Byzantine lexicographical tradition.

The codex Messinensis graecus 118 contains a fragment of a work on orthography concerning the use of the iota subscript. This is sometimes styled the Lexicon Messanense.^[3]

Fragments of two other works survive, one a list of words with more than one meaning, the other a list of toponyms and their supposed etymologies.